Carry On Hermione
by strawberry explosion
Summary: Hermione is a Veela. Draco is her mate. Welp, it's time to drown in booze and carry on with her life. That pale haired elitist surely won't mate with a mudblood like her.
1. Chapter 1

Carry On Hermione

As she lay unmoving, Hermione concluded that sleeping with her potions partner was a bad idea. If it were not for her pounding headache and the overwhelming feeling of guilt, she would gather her clothes and lock herself in her dormitory.

She knew from the college movies she watched that she needed to get out of here to avoid the morning after on what was supposed to be a one-night stand. However, it was not a one-night stand, now was it? Anthony and her still had potions to brew for their restorative medical-potion class.

"Good morning sleepy head." Anthony Goldstein, her lab partner, murmured beside her.

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on her temple. The sweet gesture made her want to smile but she could not because of how horrible she felt. Her shoulders were tense, her voice sounded cracked. Anthony, the attentive person that he was, noticed this and asked her what was wrong.

"Nothing." Hermione said. "I just feel dizzy that's all."

"Well, we did drink a lot of Firewhiskey last night. You must feel dehydrated right about now. Do you want me to fetch you a glass of water?" Anthony offered.

Hermione silently nodded. She peeked through the covers and watched as Anthony's blonde head walked toward his kitchen. He made sure to get her a perfectly clear glass and he even added a squeeze of lemon, just because he knew that Hermione appreciate it when restaurants take the time to add a little extra on something so simple.

Hermione on her part knew that her massive headache was not alcohol-induced. No, Hermione knew it was her veela heritage punishing for doing something incredibly stupid and thoughtless last night.

How could she, Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her time, ever thought that she could simply override her veela heritage if she dated or kissed someone who was not her mate? Let alone losing her maidenhead to someone who was completely different from her mate?

Anthony handed her the glass of water. He gently told her to rest in his bedroom as long as she needed. She took that invitation and went back to sleep. Her groggy eyes blurred Anthony's smiling face into Draco Malfoy's sneering one.

* * *

When Hermione received her Hogwarts acceptance letters at 11 years old, her parents all agreed to tell their friends and relatives that a prestigious boarding school in Scotland accepted her.

When both of her grandmothers heard the news, they sat little Hermione down and explained her inheritance. They both knew that the "prestigious boarding school in Scotland" was actually Hogwarts. Apparently, by sheer unadulterated luck, both of her grandmothers were daughters of full-fledged veelas who mated with muggles.

For two whole generations, there were no one magical in their family therefore they simply thought that their dormant magical genes would simply die out. However, with the revelation that Hermione was really a witch, both grandmothers feared that they Hermione would inherit their veela heritage as well. Which she did.

The only problem was, Hermione's grandmothers were descended from two completely different types of veelas.

Her paternal grandmother was descended from French Veelas. They were famous for their gorgeous looks and for having one true mate. They were the types who would die if they could not find and claim their one true mate by the time they were thirty. While this was distressing news to Hermione, French Veelas did have magical capabilities to help them find their mate. They could sense their mate from a mile away, as they were instinctively drawn to their scent and magic. French Veelas also received a "mate dream" during their 21st birthday where their mate's face was revealed to them.

On the other hand, her maternal grandmother was descended from the Greek Veelas, similar to the ones the Bulgarian Quidditch team brought with them as mascots during the 1994 Quidditch world cup. While the French Veelas were beautiful, the Greek Veelas attracted males from a mile away with their voices and movement. Like French Veelas, Greek Veelas also have one true mate but they could live a perfectly healthy life without them. Greek Veelas could also switch from one man to the next without consequences. The only drawback was that the Greek Veelas knew who their one true mate was if they made physical contact.

Neither Hermione nor her grandmothers knew what type of veela traits Hermione inherited. While each grandmother fought whose genes were stronger, Hermione strongly suspected that she was a mixture of both.

She inherited the unruly curly hair Greek Veelas had but she lacked the natural talent for song and dance. While Hermione did not have the ungodly good looks that French Veelas had, she did have her "mate dram" and it revealed that her mate was Draco Malfoy.

Her mate was Draco Malfoy, who was a known all over the Wizarding world as a pureblood womanizer. Witch Weekly made sure to document Malfoy's conquests and their bloodlines. Apparently, Malfoy only dated women who at the very least could trace all pureblood ancestors for three generations.

One woman apparently had a half-blood great-grandmother and it was a big deal when the news broke out. Did that mean that the Malfoy family was more welcoming now to those who had less than pure blood? The answer came the next day when news broke out that she was dumped.

Hermione just hoped that she did not inherit the French Veelas' tendency to die at the age of 30 if they had not claimed their mate. In the meanwhile, Hermione decided not to revolve her life on one man who she knew was simply not right for her, magical genetics be damned. She made the resolution to carry one with her life.

If only it did not hurt so much.

**A.N.** I really shouldn't be writing this. I should be writing my own stories, or reading a textbook instead but I just can't quite fanfiction yet. I have always been fascinated by fics where "mudblood" Hermione Granger is a veela whose mate is Draco Malfoy.


	2. Chapter 2

All characters here are not mine. They belong to J.K Rowling. I'm just stealing them and raising them as my own.

A.N. After reading through the first chapter, I noticed that there are many typos and grammatical errors. That's what happen when you type a chapter in the middle of the night while drinking. I sincerely apologize for that. I would be posting much later than I want to simply because I need to revise each chapter.

BTW, thanks for those who reviewed the last chapter, Guest and Guest. Special thanks for Guest for the encouragement and Guest for the inquiring question that should be addressed in this chapter.

Carry On Hermione

It turned out that it was firewhiskey that was punishing Hermione, and not her French Veela heritage. Anthony, the sweetheart that he was, made sure that she drank at least three tall glasses of water the morning after and he even cooked her a greasy brunch for the hangover.

She knew for sure that it was the firewhiskey when Anthony and she had one more round of hide-the-broomstick after brunch. She turned out feeling fine afterwards.

Why did she play another round of hide-the-broomstick after a massive headache you ask? Simple, because Hermione was a scientist and scientists repeat experiments just to make sure. As a trainee medical researcher at St. Mungo's hospital, she could not simply loose her V card while drunk and pass it off as a failure when she felt bad afterwards. No, she had to screw the guy the next day while perfectly sober to make sure.

Now she knew that she could sleep with someone who was not her mate without consequences. She already knew that she could kiss someone without consequences after she made out with Viktor Krum during Fourth Year. But she had to make sure that she could still make out with someone who was not her mate after she had her mate dream. Therefore, she made out with Charlie Weasley last Christmas during the Weasley's annual Yule party.

The thought made Hermione blush. When she started counting off all her experiences it made her sound like a slag going through her "slut phase" in university. But Fleur and Ginny liked to call it her "experimental stage."

"We don't know what traits you do have and what traits you don't." Ginny argued.

"Yezz.. we neet to test out all of them just to make zure." Fleur said in her heavily accented English.

Of course, the one trait they were all worried about is the dying at the age of thirty trait. Ginny was more apprehensive about this and wanted Hermione to look for her mate as soon as possible. Fleur on the other hand was more relaxed about it.

"Zhe has a decade to find him" Fleur said. "Zhe haz all the time in the world."

The next step would be to see if she could switch sleeping with from one man to the next without consequences as well. It's perfectly possible that her veela half would just latch on to the first guy who deflower her and count it off as a mate. There were some records of French Veelas who never had their mate dream because by the time they were 21, they already started a family and their Veela simply considered whoever they are with as their mate. There were also stories of Greek Veelas who never found their mate for whatever reason so they end up marrying whoever deflowered them.

But Hermione already had her mate dream so she doesn't know how that would work out.

Needless to say, it sucked to be a new breed of veela. She had to figure out almost everything all on her own but it was good to have friends who could help her out.

For the meantime, Hermione has to make sure that she went through her classes for the rest of the week so she could talk to Fleur during the Weasley's weekly Sunday roast.

* * *

For this week's roast, Hermione decided to recycle one of the old dresses she bought when she was eighteen. Buying a new Sunday dress whenever she grow old and tired of another dress placed a drain in Hermione's student budget so she started recycling her dresses. With just a couple of spells, Hermione could make alterations and make old dresses look like new. Oh how she love magic.

This week's recycled dress was a lilac patterned with large purple roses. It had a bit too much cloth at the bottom so Hermione made the bottom asymmetrical and cinched the waist. Now only the most fashionably conscious could tell that the dress is three years old.

She tried to control her hair in a bun but some hair ended up escaping so she settled on a half-bun and tried to apply makeup. The late nights at the St. Mungo's lab were not helping her complexion so she tried to fake a healthy complexion. She dusted lilac eye shadow, applied mascara and applied peach lipstick to finish it off.

Happy with her appearance, Hermione grabbed the peach cobbler she made last night and apparated to the Weasley's backyard where the Weasleys are already gathering. Little Teddy Lupin was playing with Victoire Weasley who was just learning how to walk as Fleur watch. Molly was catching up with Andromeda who became a regular fixture in the Weasley brunch after the war. Arthur and Percy are in the kitchen carving the meat while almost everybody else is setting up for the pick-up quidditch game later in the afternoon.

"Hermione! You look absolutely gorgeous." Molly said

She handed off the peach cobbler to Molly and exchanged pleasantries with the rest of the Weasleys. When she got to Ginny, she spun her around making her skirt twirl along with her.

"Is that the same dress you bought three years ago?" Ginny asked.

"Yes, I just made a few alterations." Hermione smiled.

"I think it looks better on you now that it did before." Ginny complimented.

"Yezz… it zeemz that Hermione iz getting prettier and prettier every year." Fleur commented making Hermione blush.

"Okay everybody, the food is ready so find your places." Arthur announced.

Hermione sat in between Ron and Harry who both gave her a hug upon seeing her.

"Hey, there's our little scientist." Harry said.

"Well if isn't my little Aurors." She replied, her smile beaming.

"Hey Hermione." Ron said, trying to act casually.

"So how are things at the Ministry?" Hermione asked.

"They are working us to the brink there Hermione." Harry said with a smile on his face. "They were making sure that all Aurors including the new ones have quick reflexes. It's kind of funny seeing fifty year old Aurors trying to keep up with stealth training. But I think everybody gained ten pounds of muscle on their calves alone."

"I think there were some female Aurors who were complaining that they couldn't fit in their skinny jeans anymore." Ron said smilingly.

He made eye contact with Hermione for a brief second before turning away. Hermione gave him a sad smile but part of her was kind of happy that she could still affect Ron months after their breakup.

Ron and Hermione dated soon after the Final Battle but they broke up as soon as Hermione had her "mate dream" eight months ago. For a while, she hoped that her mate would turn out to be Ron to make things a lot easier for everybody but fate had other plans. She tried pretending that nothing was wrong; to "keep calm and carry on" but it was the beginning of the end for them.

Hermione stopped making out with Ron in fear of how her Veela heritage would react to her making out with someone who was not her mate. While Greek Veelas could move from one male to the next, French Veelas suffer a curse almost as painful as the Cruciatus Curse when touched sexually by someone who was not her mate. At the time Hermione did not knew which trait she inherited so she avoided any sexual touching altogether. Ron brushed it off to the side and for a while, Hermione thought everything would be alright.

Then the Weasley family started asking them when they would get married.

It was at that point that Hermione realize that it was not fair for her, Ron and the rest of the Weasley family to keep up the charade. Ron deserved to be with a girl who wants to start a small family at a young age like he did.

And the last thing Hermione wanted to do was leave Ron with young children if she dies at the age of thirty.

Hermione broke it off with him on October. She told him that they were too young, that she wanted to explore her options more fully before settling down. That she feared that they might grow apart and the last thing she wanted was for her and Ron to stop being friends and that they should end it while they were still in good terms.

Ron protested for a while, then he got angry. When Hermione pointed out that they stopped being physical to one another, he agreed that this was inevitable so they broke it off. For a while, they avoided eye contact during Weasley Weekly Brunch but time helped heal all wounds.

At first the Weasley family was just bidding their time for them to get back together but then Hermione told Fleur and Ginny her predicament who in turn spread around that the pair were likely to never getting back together. She told Ginny because she was her best friend. She told Fleur because she also had veela heritage but since she has an unpaired veela gene Fleur only some veela traits such as insanely good looks. She did not have a mate nor did she had a mate dream. She fell in love with Bill all on her own.

Hermione quickly deduced that the veela gene was a recessive gene and it took two recessive genes for it to show up. Since Hermione does have two veela genes from her grandmothers, even though they are two different types of veelas, Hermione received the full force of veela problems. While her veela heritages contradict in many ways, they both agreed that Hermione had a mate. And his name was Draco "git" Malfoy.

She never told Fleur and Ginny about her mate dream though . As far as they were concerned, they have to find her mate through the Greek veela way, by touching as much males as possible.

By the time of Weasley's annual Yule Celebration, Ron was dating someone new and Hermione had a glass of Firewhiskey in her hand. Hermione almost drunk in a stupor if it were not for Charlie Weasley who came back from Romania for Christmas. He stole her Firewhiskey with one hand and her waist with another when she passed him by in a hallway.

"Wotcher Mione. We don't want you throwing up all over yourself now do we?" Charlie said with his brilliant smile.

At that point, Hermione was musing at the unfairness of it all. She had all the problems of both veela heritages without the looks, the talent nor the grace to attract her git of a "mate" who was off to the Caribbean with his then-girlfriend for the holidays according to _Witch Weekly_. At the time, there were even rumors that they already met each other's parents and were on their way to the wedding aisle. On top of it all, she could not touch any other males or anyone who she actually was attracted to because she was too damn afraid of how her body would react.

But then Hermione noticed how Charlie was even more good-looking than Ron and how years of working as a dragon-tamer helped him develop well-toned muscles. He was giving her a winning smile and for some reason he was the only one in that hallway with her.

Was it wrong for her to want to kiss her ex-boyfriend's brother? Even if her ex-boyfriend has moved on? But Hermione saw Charlie bend over, his lips almost ghosting over hers. Does he want to…? She wondered if she reached over then and pecked him, would she feel pain? His lips were so full, Hermione wondered if it would feel like a soft pillow. He was shorter than Ron, so it was easier for Hermione to stand on her toes and kiss him.

The kiss started out sloppy and her breath reeked of alcohol. Charlie wrapped his arms around her. His tongue, seeking entrance as he tried to push her against the wall.

The loud thud of her Hermione's back hitting against the wall made them aware of how visible they were right in the hallway. With a tilt of his head, Charlie told Hermione to follow him. He brought her to his room and proceeded to kiss Hermione again.

He laid her down his old bed and pulled down her jeans so he could play with her clit with his experienced fingers. He kissed her mouth then peppered her neck with kisses. Hermione took off her sweater and Charlie pushed up her shirt to expose her C cup breasts framed by her polka-dot bra.

"Mione, Mione, Mione. How long have you been hiding these under all those clothing?" Charlie murmured.

Hermione blushed. It was the first time anyone saw her breasts. Ron didn't even get his hand under her shirt.

Charlie pushed up her bra and suckled on her left tit all the while he played with her clit. His hands were pulling down her pants so he could have better access to her clit. He ran his fingers over her mound, hinting of what he really wanted to do to her.

He stopped teasing her and reached for her clit, sending shivers all over Hermione's body. His expert fingers circled over her clit faster and faster. His other fingers ghosting over her opening but they never entered.

At this point Hermione was breathing hard and she was holding back screams but soft whimpers escaped her lips.

"Hussh Mione." Charlie whispered breathlessly.

Pleasure built up within her more and more. It was not long until Hermione Granger reached her first orgasm at the age of twenty-one.

When Hermione came down from her high, she came to the realization that she did not feel any pain anywhere like she thought she would. Charlie for his part, helped make Hermione look presentable to his family and they both headed downstairs to exchange Christmas gifts.

* * *

After lunch Fleur and Hermione helped clean out the table while everybody else played a pick-up Quidditch game. Usually Molly would clean up while Fleur watched her husband and Hermione read a novel but Hermione wanted to talk to Fleur about Anthony. It would seem that Fleur wanted to talk to her privately as well when she asked Molly and Andromeda to look out for the little children.

"I notizzed that you are getting prettier." Fleur said.

"Thank you Fleur, you are very kind." Hermione replied.

"Non. I mean it. You may not zee it for yourzelf but you are much prettier now than a year ago." Fleur said. "It muzt be ze French Veela in you. You might be a late bloomer"

"I think it's a bit late for me to be a late bloomer." Hermione joked. After a while she said. "I just put on a bit of makeup, that's all."

"Non, it's more than that." Fleur said. "The way you move iz entrancing. I brought Victoire to St. Mungo's for a checkup thiz pazt week and I zaw you and your clazz. I zee you pazz by with your hair piled top of your head and even then there are zome people in your clazz who could not ztop looking at you."

Hermione blushed at the compliment. She never noticed how people look at her and maybe Fleur was right. That doesn't' stop her from denying it though.

"I beat you have more suitors when you were seventeen than I do when I am twenty-one." Hermione said, remembering how the boys at Hogwarts were drooling all over themselves when she passed by during her fourth year.

"I am not talking about me Hermione. I am talking about you. I zwear Hermione. You could pick any boy in your clazz as your beau. They would probably even trip over themzelvez to have a date wiz you." Fleur said.

Hermione blushed. She remembered when Hermione asked Anthony to study with her. He was a bit too eager, too excited to say yes. He even brought a pound-yes a pound-of notes with him on the library. He even insisted that they continue studying for the next chapter at his dorm after the library closed down. Now that she had time to think about it, it was normal for Hermione to study ahead for class but it was unusual for anybody else.

Hermione must have been thinking too long because Fleur gasped right next to her.

"Non. You zlept with a clazzmate did you?" Fleur said, aghast.

Hermione's face turned beet red before she answered "Yes okay." Hermione whispered harshly.

"Vell? Iz he your mate?" Fleur asked.

That was the standard question Fleur and Ginny asked whenever she even touched a boy in the past few months after she told them her secret.

"No, there isn't any spark that the books talk about." Hermione said.

"But you gave him your virginity no?" Hermione nodded. "Oh no, zat would mean that he would be enamored with you zhe next time you zee him. "

Hermione shook her head. Anthony knew perfectly well that it was just a one-time thing with no strings attached. Besides, Hermione read that women tend to feel attached to the men they lost their virginity to. If anything, it should be her who would have feelings for Anthony, not the other way around.

"You hav no idea what power you hav over men don't you?" Fleur said.

"I know that veelas could attract males with their good looks, song and dance. But I don't have gorgeous looks like you and-"

"No." Fleur interrupted. "Both French and Greek Veelas are unforgettable. Yez, men would move on with and get married but men don't forget a veela for the rest of their livez."

Hermione blushed. Unsure of what to say.

"I know that you got to gezther with Charlie lazt Chriztmaz" Fleur said. " I knew this because he couldn't ztop talking about you when he went back to Romania. He writez Molly every month and he kept azking about you. He even planz to vizit zometime thiz month juzt to zhe you. Molly iz even making planz for your wedding."


	3. Chapter 3

None of these characters belong to me, they belong to JK Rowling. I just want to play with them.

A.N. School started too soon for me. I want more vacation time. I also hate writing Fleur's dialogues. No wonder J.K. Rowling barely gave her any lines.

Special thanks to Guest, Shaymars and Guest for commenting the previous chapter.

Carry On Hermione Ch. 3

Fleur should not have told her that Anthony Goldstein might have feelings for her. Despite Hermione's thirst for knowledge, there were some things she preferred she did not know.

It was one thing that they are just two friends having fun sexy time together but it was another when feelings were involved. Hermione thought back at all the smiles and the jokes they shared during class. She thought about their easy partnership and she realized that someone like Ron's girlfriend Lavender Brown would consider it as a form of flirting.

Maybe Anthony interpreted it as flirting, which troubled Hermione. The last thing Hermione wanted was to make Anthony think that they were dating.

She tried to pretend nothing was wrong during their next Restorative Medical Potions class but Hermione still felt anxious and it showed on her actions. She sat a few inches away from him than usual. She unconsciously placed her bag to the corner closest to the door, just in case she wanted to flee.

If Anthony noticed anything wrong with Hermione, he did not mention it. Instead, he gave her one of his gorgeous smiles.

"So how was the Sunday roast at the Weasley's?" Anthony Goldstein asked.

"Oh you know, the same old same old. There's good food, good conversation and a pick-up Quidditch game afterwards and we all went back home with enough food until the next roast." Hermione replied.

"Sounds like a great time." Anthony said.

"How was your weekend?" Hermione asked back.

"Oh, nothing special. I just visited the parents, they asked me how was my training to be a Healer and I'm the second best student in the class. Only second to the brightest witch of her age herself."

The compliment made Hermione blush.

Healer Oliver entered the classroom and instructed the class to brew a batch of skele-grow each. It would take two weeks to brew the potion properly and though each person was required to make their own, they could ask their lab partner for help.

Without saying a single word to each other, Hermione and Anthony prepared the ingredients and took turns on using the equipment in front of them.

If Anthony did not notice Hermione's awkwardness before, he could definitely sense them now. Hermione worked too quickly, as if she was eager to finish today's task. She accidentally dropped her raw ingredients, then her silver knife, and various other materials afterwards. With every item her butterfingers slipped, the class glared at her. Even Theodore Nott who was usually oblivious of his surroundings looked up from his desk to glare at her.

With much trial and error, Hermione managed to finish today's task and prep for next class with thirty minutes left to spare. Anthony was right behind her because he was finishing up. As calmly as she could muster, she took off her goggles and her lab coat and stored them in her in-class locker.

She left the classroom only but Anthony stopped her by the door. He was still wearing his lab outfit and there was a concerned look on his face.

"Hey Hermione." Anthony called out.

"Hey what's up?"

"Umm… I really don't know how to say this but is everything alright?"

"Yeah, it's alright." Hermione insisted.

"Really? 'cause you seemed to be in a little bit of a hurry back there." Anthony said. "Is there something wrong? Is someone sick in the family?"

"No, nothing is wrong." Hermione insisted.

He looked pensive for a minute.

"Okay, if you need anything. I am your friend. Just come to me if you need anything"

* * *

If Sundays were Weasley Family time, Monday afternoons was teatime for Harry and Hermione. Every week, Harry and Hermione would alternate visiting each other so they could enjoy a spot of tea and some snacks. It was their own way of keeping in touch with one another without the distraction of anybody else. This week, it was Hermione's turn to visit Harry at the Ministry at his own private office.

Normally, newly appointed Aurors did not have their own offices but Harry was… well he was Harry Potter. While Harry wanted to be treated like everybody else but he was still the famous Boy Who Lived and the infamous Man Who Slayed.

When Harry was attending Hogwarts, Dumbledore and Hogwarts's administration protected from the majority of the press's attention. As soon as the word got out that Harry was training to be an Auror, the press tried their best to capture an image of the valiant Harry Potter training, eating and even relaxing. The Auror trainers did their best to keep the press at bay but there was virtually no stopping them once Harry became a full-fledged Auror. After all, the Ministry was public property.

Harry's first few weeks as an Auror was memorable for the chaos it caused. The paparazzi were relentless in their pursuit to take a picture of anything and everything Harry Potter does. By the end of the week, the entire Auror department agreed that they should just give Harry Potter his own office. The amount of paparazzi presence lessened afterwards but there were still people from _Witch Weekly_, _PlayWitch_, and _Daily Prophet_ who hang around.

When Hermione arrived in front of Harry's office, the door was wide open and Harry was talking with Hermione instantly recognized as Draco Malfoy. Though he was sitting with his back turned against her, something deep inside her knew it was her mate.

He was wearing dark business robes and there was a briefcase right beside him. His back was towards Hermione but she could tell that he started combing his hair back like his father. Hermione could not tell if he got taller, but she could tell that his shoulders broadened.

It was the first time Hermione saw him in over three years since the Battle at Hogwarts. It was also the first time Hermione saw him since her mate dream. The effect was much stronger than Hermione could have anticipated.

Hermione's veela was screaming for him. It became difficult to stand there, looking at him, when her veela urged her to run towards him and to kiss him senseless. She imagined slamming the door shut and stunning her best friend. She imagined claiming her mate right there and then.

When Draco stood up from his seat, Hermione held her breath. His face was as pointy as ever but it suited him. His skin was almost iridescent against his all-black clothing.

Hermione's veela could almost soared in happiness but the impassive look on his face broke Hermione's heart. His face showed no look of annoyance Hermione expected. Not even a look of recognition.

Hermione already accepted that her mate would never have affections for her the way her veela craved. It just hurt that he did not even seem to remember her at all. As if, she was insignificant.

Hermione shook her head. Of course she was insignificant to him. She already knew that. So why did it still hurt?

Hermione moved away as Draco passed her and it took more strength than she realized to watch him pass by, when all she wanted to do was to run after him and confess everything. How she was secretly a veela, and how he was her mate. And that was the tamest thing she wanted to do to him. Damn veela hormones.

But she said nothing. Her mate passed her by without even acknowledging her presence.

"Hey Hermione. Is it tea time already?" Harry greeted.

Hermione quickly got her composure together and gave Harry her least forced looking forced smile she could muster.

"Yep. I even brought digestive biscuits from the store." Hermione said and closed the door before she asked. "What was Malfoy doing here?"

"Oh, he's going to be one of the sponsors for this year's Ministry Victory Ball this weekend."

"Really? We're having sponsors this year?"

"Yeah. We're trying to get people to donate things for a silent auction as a fundraiser for the children's orphanage."

"Hmm… that doesn't sound like something Malfoy would do." Hermione said.

"Donors' names would be featured in an article about 'their generous contribution to the Wizarding World's neediest' at the Prophet. The orphanage is also planning to put up a plaque on the orphanage's new ward. The bigger the donation, the larger the font."

"Let me guess, he donated a large sum so that the Malfoy name would be the largest one in the plaque?"

Harry smiled. "Yep. If Malfoy had his way, there would be an entire plaque for him and one for everybody else."

"Ron wouldn't like that." Hermione said.

"Hmm. He would probably say that the only reason Malfoy that large of a donation was because he wants to reinvent his family's image."

"That's because the reason the Malfoy family is making a donation that big is because to reinvent his family's image." Hermione said, though she felt guilty after she said it.

She laid out the digestive biscuits as Harry prepared the tea. As she set up the teacups, she had an itch to defend her mate.

"Then again, that's the reason why most people would donate for the Victory Ball in the first place was to improve their image." Hermione said. "In that way, Malfoy is just like anyone else."

"I guess that's true." Harry said thoughtfully.

As they let the tea brew, they chatted about the speeches they had to make at the ball. Minister Shacklebolt asked them to make a speech how they really appreciate the contribution and thank all the high society people invited for their donations. Neither Harry nor Hermione let along Ron wanted to make a speech in front of a ball. However it was for the orphans, so the three of them agreed.

Their teatime conversation that week revolved around the ball. They decided that the three of them should come together to show a united front. They talked at length at what they were going to wear. Harry already had a set of dress-robes since the one he bought last year still fit him while Hermione needed to buy a new set of dress-robes altogether.

"I hate this societal expectation for women to have a new set of dress-robe for every formal occasion." Hermione grumbled. "I wish I could just re-use my old dress-robe from last year but the press would have a field day."

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't mind it if women wear the same thing twice." Harry said. "I mean, I saw the price tag on Ginny's dress robes last Saturday and she ought to wear it at least five more times."

Hermione nodded in agreement. She drank her tea and bit on her biscuit. All the while, she tried to press her knees together as hard as she could.

* * *

Sigmund Freud wrote that people deal with their libido six different ways. Those are repression, denial, projection, displacement, regression, and sublimation.

Hermione's veela had a large libido ever since she first glanced at her mate. During teatime with Harry, Hermione managed to hold back her libido but she could not get rid of it entirely just by pressing her knees together. And she definitely could not wait until her libido shuts down.

She had to get rid of it one-way or another but the only thing that seemed acceptable to was to screw somebody else. In other words, Hermione quickly learned that her veela liked to deal with its libido through displacement.

As soon as she got out of Harry's office, she made a beeline towards Anthony's dorm room. She had to push away five different people on the way to the Ministry's floo networks and she practically ran up the dormitory stairs, pushing away the students in her way.

She banged several times on Anthony's door. She was so loud that she swore the whole dormitory could hear her.

"Hermione, what-" Anthony asked.

He looked tired, she could tell that he was reading a dense textbook. Maybe he was still busy reading a textbook but none of it mattered to Hermione right now. She forced herself in the dorm room and closed the door.

"You said that you would be a friend to me first, Anthony."

"Yeah, but I don't know what this abou-"

Hermione started undressing herself

"Wait, Wait-what are you-"

"Anthony, could you be a friend to me and sleep with me please?"

"Wait. What-"

"I said, could you be a good friend and sleep with me?" Hermione repeated. Her voice lost its confidence it had just a few seconds ago.

Anthony grabbed a jacket from the coat rack and wrapped it around her.

"Hermione, what's going on? What is this about?"

"I…I just needed to feel desired right now." Hermione said. This time, her voice was barely above a whisper.

For a minute, Anthony just looked at her. For the first time, Hermione could experience the phenomenon people call "silence was deafening." Embarrassment overwhelmed her as she clutched the jacket closer. She should not have come here. She should have just bought a toy from one of those sex shops at London and dealt with it herself.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have barged in like this." She bent over to grab her clothes. "I didn't know what I was thinking. This must the dumbest thing that I have ever done."

Anthony placed his hand on top of Hermione's, his eyes staring deeply into hers. He took a step forward and kissed her forehead, her nose, and finally her lips. Hermione dropped her clothes to the floor.

Anthony gently guided her hands down to his arousal. She could feel it hardening against her palms. His breathing was labored and his forehead was pressed against hers. She blushed but she did not know whether because the act was so intimate or because of her effect on him. Perhaps it was both.

"Hermione, you must be the most desirable woman I ever met." Anthony's voice was raspy.

For a minute, she looked straight at Anthony's eyes and she could tell that he was sincere which made Hermione blush even further. She felt powerful knowing that she could make him feel this way. If her mate desired her the way Anthony did.

Hermione quickly pushed down any thoughts of Draco and reached up to kiss Anthony. He took his jacket off her shoulders and kissed her with enthusiasm.

Anthony made sure she felt the most desirable woman in the world that afternoon. He made sure her reach her peak repeatedly and after each completion, Hermione was ready to go for another round.

Despite Hermione's eagerness, in the back of her mind it all felt wrong. He was too broad, too muscular and his face was too friendly. His golden locks were too dark.

It was way after dinnertime before Hermione's veela was fully sated. They skipped dinner and both of them are simply too tired to eat. Without talking, they agreed to lay on Anthony's too small bed for the rest of the night. Their bodies were covered with sweat and their breathing was labored.

Hermione could tell that Anthony was ready to sleep, she felt sleepy as well. She turned her head towards him and she saw his satisfied smile. She knew she would hate herself for what she would say next. At the same time, she would hate herself more if she did not say it.

"Thanks for being a good friend."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Characters are not mine. I'm just playing with them.

A.N. The long awaited Hermione-Draco interaction is here. However, this chapter was longer than I anticipated so I would cut it in half. I was torn on how to portray Draco. Fanfiction Draco or Canon Draco? Let's see.

Special thanks to Guest, ThisIsMe79, dutch potterfan, RomanceObsessed and Guest for the encouragement and pointing out what I needed in my life.

Carry On Hermione Ch. 4

The Ministry Victory Ball started out with the Order of the Phoenix's Remembrance Day of the Fallen. The first organizers and participants were Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and many members of the Order of the Phoenix who spent the one-year anniversary of Voldemort's death at their friends' graves.

They spent the day either quietly mourning or they shared precious memories they shared with the dead. A couple of people laughed as they shared memories while a couple of people cried. After they shared stories, they cleaned up the gravesites. They made sure that the gravestone was clean, the grass was cut and they left a bouquet of flowers at every gravesite. It was a cathartic day for everybody.

The next day, the Daily Prophet published a full-page exclusive on the "Golden Trio's" heroism, bravery, and loyalty to their friends complete with a "Where Are They Now" section. The article even had pictures of them. How the Daily Prophet even obtained a picture of them was a mystery to everyone at the Order.

To the public, the article struck a chord. Many families all over Wizarding Europe commemorated the day in one way or another. Some families mourned while many more celebrated. Meanwhile, the Ministry had done absolutely nothing to commemorate the day. On top of that, the image of Harry Potter and his friends at the gravesite brought memories of people who were still struggling after the war.

Normally it was not a big a deal. However, the Ministry of Magic played a role persecuting mudbloods and helping Death Eaters. The Ministry's lack of response looked like their role during the war under the rug.

The general population was simply pissed off. Never mind that there the new Minister of Magic was present at the gravesite along with the "Golden Trio". Never mind that many of those who were in charge during Voldemort's occupation of the Ministry of Magic either were in a jail cell or were awaiting trial.

Andromeda pointed out that the real reason the public was because there was an overwhelming need to do something. It had been a year since the Battle at Hogwarts and there were still a lot of things that still needed attention. The orphanages were overflowing, the houses still needed fixing and there were still businesses that still that have yet to recover from the war. It was less because the Ministry of Magic did nothing; it was more because the Wizarding World needed something to be done.

Minister Kingsley decided to address those issues and called his closest advisors to have a discussion on what to do. It took an entire week but the Minister and their advisors came up with a two-step solution. The Ministry started with what they could do.

There were still Death Eaters and former Ministry officials that were still awaiting trial, particularly Umbridge. The old hag still had some sway in Wizengamot from her jail cell and there were many others like her. In response, the Minister decreed that the public, the ones who were most affected by Voldemort's reign, were the ones who would judge the rest of those awaiting trial.

Five different courts were set up to speed up the process without sacrificing the quality. The results were that each defendant had a trial twice as long. But overall, the trials concluded within five months after the decree.

The law was controversial for many of those who were awaiting trial. Many of the well-connected and rich defendants wanted to bribe their way. It was easier to bribe people they already had connections with either through business or through family. Very few defendants, those who had lighter sentences, were relieved that the trials were finished.

The second thing the Ministry decided to do was to host a Victory Ball every year at rich and likely pureblood homes. The goal was to raise money for whatever caused needed it for the next year. Last year it was to fix the broken homes and businesses. This year was to raise money for the orphanage.

It was not Kingsley's idea but his Senior Undersecretary wanted to make a public display that the Ministry was actually doing something. It was also a way to appease the richer pureblood families by giving them a chance to clean up their name in the most glamorous way possible.

As a result, the Ministry's Victory ball was an intentional press photo-op. Members of press made up almost a quarter of guests. Each of them was free to take pictures with the Wizarding Wolrd's greatest heroes, from war heroes to athletes.

Last year's Victory Ball provided a weeks' worth of material. They described each famous person wore in attendance and who came with whom. They talked about what was on the menu, the décor and the ambiance.

If the idea were not so muggle, the Ministry would lay out the red carpet complete with a wall of paparazzi.

This year's Victory ball was at the Nott Mansion, owned by Hermione's classmate Theodore Nott. Nott's father was one of the first few who were tried by Wizengamot. He did not protest his trial even though he had the means to do so. It was probably because he was too old to care how long he would stay in Azkaban. The sentence was as followed, Wizengamot found that he was guilty of all charges and Nott Sr. was sent to life in jail.

Theodore Nott, on the other hand, did absolutely nothing during the war but he still received bad press from his father's actions. Hosting this year's Victory Ball all gave Nott an opportunity to clean up his name in the public eye.

When Hermione arrived with Harry and Ron at Nott's front garden, she could tell that Nott took a lot of preparation for this year's Ball.

The house was large with well-trimmed grass and hedges. There was a large lawn and an even bigger backyard. Two rows of magic lantern light the pathway from Nott's front garden to his front door. The grass and hedges were well trimmed. Two fountains were at either side of the pathway lit by a spell that has the same effect as muggle fairy lights.

The inside of the house was as immaculate as the outside. Everything from the portraits to the knickknacks were polished to the point that they were shiny but not blinding. The ballroom was set up so that there was there was a large dance floor in the middle while round tables were scattered on the side. The large French doors that were lined across the ballroom lead to balconies.

There were no servers in sight, so Hermione suspected that the food would come to them as soon as they ordered similar to how they served food during the Yule Ball during the Triwizard Tournament.

When the Harry, Ron and Hermione arrived at the ballroom, they were immediately bombarded with the press. Camera flashes almost blinded them but they knew that they needed to get their obligatory interviews finished so that the paparazzi would bother somebody else instead of them.

"Harry Potter! Harry Potter! You and Ginerva Weasley have been dating for a long time now. When are you going to propose?" A reporter asked.

"When we're ready." Harry responded.

"Who designed your outfits today?"

"Madam Malkins." Harry said.

"Same for me." Ron said.

"How about you Hermione? Who designed that lovely dress robe of yours?"

"Madam Malkin." Hermione repeated.

"So is Madam Malkin the official dresser of the Golden Trio?"

"For this occasion she is." Harry said.

"Ron and Harry, how does it feel like catching petty criminals after you guys took down You-Know-Who?"

"A lot more tiring than you would expect." Harry said.

"Hermione, what are you doing with your life?" a Rita-Skeeter wannabe asked.

Hermione glared at her for a second. The question implied that while her two best friend were out there catching criminals, she was just lounging around. She would have snapped at the girl if Ron did not answer for her.

"She's studying to be a medical researcher at St. Mungo's Hospital."

"Hermione! Ron! You two broke up in less than a year ago. How are you guys still friends."

Here it was, the question she knew that was coming.

"We would always be good friends." Ron said.

"We've been through too much to let a little awkwardness get between us." Hermione said.

"But don't you get jealous of Ron's new girlfriend?" The reporter pressed.

"Lavender and I spent some time together at the Weasley household and we get along pretty well. In fact, we got ready together for tonight."

They endured a couple more questions before it became clear that they were just making up random questions on the spot. Ron became their savior when he made an excuse about meeting with his family while Harry and Hermione followed along.

While the paparazzi wanted to make them reveal something scandalous and nefarious, their lack of questions and the trio's determination to get out of there forced the reporters to turn their attention to somewhere else.

"Harry! Ron! You two look very handsome." Molly gushed.

"Thank you Mum." Ron said.

"Thanks Molly" Harry said.

He took his position beside Ginny who was wearing a cherry red dress robe that flattered her hair.

"Oh and Hermione, you look absolutely gorgeous." Molly complimented. "You just kept looking better every day. Just watch, by the end of the month, your knight in shining armor would sweep over and take you away."

Hermione thanked her though she knew that it was unlikely.

The event organizers seated Harry, Ron and Hermione right before the stage, nearby the dance floor while the event organizers placed the Weasley family in the same area.

On each place setting was a menu. From the look of it, whoever picked the menu was torn between giving the guests comfort food and something healthy to east so they gave them both.

_Appetizers_

Kale, mushroom, and ricotta calzones

Spinach, Artichoke and Bacon stuffed soft pretzels

_Main_

Garlicky Kale and Bacon pizza

Fettucini Alfredo with Spinach

Marinated flank steak with Lemony Arugula and Feta Salad

Stuffed Shells with Spinach and Chickpeas

_Dessert _

Tomato Cherry Ice cream

Chocolate avocado pudding,

Hermione picked the soft pretzels, steak arugula and feta salad and the chocolate pudding. As Hermione suspected, their food magically arrived to them as soon as they placed the order. The food was great, but it was a mouthful to order.

An hour after the ball started, the golden trio gave their speech thanking all of those who attended the event, the donors, and for those who bid at the silent auction which none of the three even glanced at.

With the dinner and speech finished, the topmost Ministry officials danced with their spouses encouraging everybody else to do the same. The song was slow and melodic, perfect for couples who wanted to dance the waltz. Harry and Ginny headed toward the dance floor along with Ron and Lavender. Bill and Fleur asked Molly to watch over Victoire as they dance.

Hermione stayed behind, partly because she did not have a date with her and partly because she was not exactly looking forward to dancing alone in high heels. Especially to a song that was clearly meant for couples. She preferred to sit and watch.

Hermione recognized very few classmates around the ballroom. And from the very few she potted, all of them were purebloods. Former Hufflepuff Ernie Macmillan danced with Hannah Abbott. Neville Longbottom attended the event with his grandmother. Hermione imagined that Neville broke many hearts with that decision. After his awkward phase at Hogwarts, Neville turned out to be a very handsome young man. Along with his war-hero status, Neville was not short of admirers.

Their host, Theodore Nott, was simply standing around with some of his old Slytherin dorm mates. He was not engaged in their conversation, but it was clear that he was a part of it. They were all huddled together, finely dressed and all their noses were stuck in the air. None of them gave off a friendly atmosphere, making them a pretty isolated group.

Hermione knew that Malfoy attended the ball and it was very likely that he was chatting with his fellow Slytherins. Hermione's veela wanted to see him in his dress robes but Hermione's rational side told her that it was not a good idea to approach a group of people who made it perfectly clear that they do not want to be bothered.

"Hermione, dear. I barely get to talk to you one on one lately." Molly said as Victoire tried to keep her attention.

"That's alright Molly. We both have a lot of things in our hands lately."

"Yes, you are very busy right now aren't you? Do you even have time for friends?"

Hermione thought it was odd that Molly was questioning about her time management skills or her relationships but she answered her anyway.

"Harry and I have tea together every week to catch up. Ron and I on the other hand talk to each other during Sunday roast."

"Well that's very nice." Molly said. "But do you have someone special in your life right now? A boy in your university or even perhaps out of it?"

That caught Hermione off guard. Hermione knew that Molly hoped that Charlie and she would get together but she did not think that she would be blatant about it.

"Hermione!" Fleur said right next to her. "Come. You zhould meet Monsieur Travers. He iz a British researcher, studying at France."

Hermione did not realize that the first song was finished but she was grateful for the opportunity to get away. With a quick apology to Molly, Hermione followed Fleur as they made their way across the ballroom.

"I'm zorry about Molly." Fleur said. "Zhe really wantz you and Charlie to get together zo that Charlie have a reazon to go back home more often."

"That's alright. I just hope that we could make it clear to her that Charlie and I are never going to be a thing."

"The bezt way to dizuade Molly iz to find your mate." Fleur said. "The iz a lot of men at this ball and one of them might be your mate."

Hermione kept quiet and let Fleur take her to Ginny who was chatting with a good-looking young man.

"Hermione! You should meet Benjy Williams. He is Puddlemore United's Seeker." Ginny said.

"Hello, nice to meet you." Hermione said, she shook her hand knowing both Ginny and Fleur was watching for a reaction.

"So this is the famous Hermione Granger." Benjy leered. "I heard about your intelligence but what they should tell people is how sexy you are."

Hermione pursed her lips. Ginny and Fleur noticed immediately and quickly looked around for another man to throw in Hermione's direction. Oliver Wood was nearby flirting with a pretty lady.

"Look, Hermione. It's our old housemate Oliver Wood." Ginny said

Oliver Wood's head snapped toward their direction.

"Did somebody call my name?" Oliver said.

"Hey Oliver." Ginny said. "You remember Hermione? And this is my sister-in-law Fleur."

Oliver briefly shook Hermione's hand but he was clearly more interested in Fleur. Oliver was not at Hogwarts during the Tri-Wizard Tournament so it was understandable that he was dazzled by the part-veela. Hermione eyed Ginny and shook her head, which indicated that she felt nothing when they shook hands. After a brief introduction, Ginny quickly dismissed Oliver by introducing him to another pretty girl.

Fleur quickly introduced her to a businessman followed by a politician and family members of her classmates from Beauxbatons. Ginny introduced her to former housemates and Quidditch players. A few men insisted to dance with the "stunning and brilliant Hermione Granger" which Hermione politely obliged despite her reluctance of dancing in high heels.

Fleur and Ginny must have introduced her to five dozen different men. Some were younger than her, and some were older. Some were important dignitaries from the continent while some were born and bred in the British Isles. Ginny even tried to introduce her to a recently married man who worked with her at the Quidditch League.

Shortly after each introduction, Hermione indicated that none of them was her mate. She felt grateful that her friends were working so hard. At the same time, she felt guilty that she was hiding the fact she already knew who her mate was. It almost made Hermione wish she did not had her mate dream so that their efforts were not wasted.

Halfway through the ball, Ginny and Fleur took a break from matchmaking and danced with their significant others. For her part, Hermione was very grateful that she could have time for herself. While she chatted and danced with important men and interesting men, her high heels made her feet ache. On top of that, the constant chatter made Hermione's throat sore.

Hermione would have returned to their table but she knew that Molly would start questioning her again if she had a special man friend. Hermione also knew that Victoire and Teddy would be there as well. As much as she loved Victoire and Teddy, she did not have the energy to keep up with little children right now.

Hermione dragged her tired feet toward the balcony where no one could bother her. She hid herself in the shadows and made sure that nobody was looking for her. Once she was sure that nobody was nearby, she took off her heels. There was no bench available so Hermione placed her heels beside her and massaged her feet while crouching.

After a while, Hermione's back started to hurt from crouching for so long. She did not feel like going back to the ball just yet nor did she felt like putting on her shoes. Instead, she pushed herself up so that she sat on top of the marble railings. Her feet dangled a couple of inches above the ground.

A delightful breeze flew by, and for a moment, she imagined what she might have looked. Her light salmon dress robes billowed against the wind while her hair stayed perfectly in place but still looked breezy. Thank you hair mousse.

The breeze carried a whiff of tobacco, which made Hermione scrunch up her nose. Disgusting. Who in their right mind would voluntarily ruin their lungs?

Hermione turned her head and saw the perpetrator. He was standing near the railings as he smoked his cigar. His gaze was focused on something far away. The bright light from the ball casted a bright light on his back. Hermione could only see his profile but Hermione could already tell who he was.

It was Draco Malfoy. Suddenly the cigar on his hand made him look cool, even mature. The act that disgusted her just a few seconds ago suddenly became attractive because of her stupid veela hormones.

Draco turned his head towards her. For a minute, Hermione wondered if there was anyone behind her. She even turned around and checked. When she looked back at him again, he was smirking. He was definitely watching her.

Hermione felt self-conscious under his gaze. This was completely different from earlier last week when he just passed her by as if she was invisible. Now he was openly looking at her. Though she could not see his eyes, she felt him judging her. Did he even recognize her? She did presented a speech earlier, so there was a pretty big chance that he knew who she was.

"Well if it isn't the 'brilliant and stunning Hermione Granger.'" Draco said.

Hermione tensed. She sensed that he was about to say something but he took a huff from his cigar instead. She waited patiently for what he wanted to say.

"How are you?"

His tone was neither friendly nor condescending. It frustrated Hermione.

There was a pregnant pause where neither of them did anything. She realized that he was waiting for an answer.

"I'm good. I'm just trying to have a moment for myself. How about you? How have you been?" Hermione said out of politeness.

"I'm doing alright, considering"

Considering what, he never said. Instead, he huffed on his cigar again.

"So, how does it feel?" Malfoy asked cryptically.

"Feel like what?"

"To be the media's darling. It must feel amazing, a group of people following you around like puppies"

At this point Hermione could already tell that she did not like how this conversation was going. It seemed that after three years, Malfoy still displayed the wonderful trait of taking enjoyment out of annoying others.

"Annoying, irritating, pretentious, tiresome. Similar how you were back in our Hogwarts days."

Hermione expected him to be irritated. Instead, he gave her a smirk and said.

"Touché"


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Not my characters. Not profiting. I wish am though. Which tells me to quit.

**A.N**. I am sorry this took so long but I have school and the alcohol was out of my system. The conversation took a lot from me to write and I was planning to type the aftermath along with this chapter, but I realized that the chapter would be too long and it would be much better pacing if I dedicate a chapter on their first real encounter. I have the next chapter lined up already so it would not take long to finish it and upload. Then again, I could end it here.

Special Thanks to those who comment on the previous chapter LandOfTheLivingSkys, Guest, dutch potterfan, and RomanceObsessed.

Hermione could not tell if Malfoy wanted to be friendly or if he wanted to be condescending towards her. Knowing Malfoy's past, he was trying to be condescending to her in the snidest way possible.

That was something she was not looking forward to experience. On the other hand, Hermione's veela side was thoroughly enjoying the moment. Her heartbeat was fast. Her arousal was slowly increasing as they stare at each other in semi-darkness.

"So tell me why you're dangling on a balcony instead with your friends." Malfoy said. "I know that they are annoying as hell but there's no need to kill yourself over your stupid friends."

"We are on the ground floor, Malfoy." Hermione drawled. "I would have to be much higher for it to be a threat on my life."

He ignored her point and moved on to his next jab.

"Are you trying to run away instead? I would not do it if I were you. The woods around this place are far from friendly."

The woods did look scary at night. Hermione did not doubt that there would be dangerous creatures out there. It was a good thing that Hermione did not plan to go near it anytime soon. Instead of acknowledging anything his statement, Hermione fired back.

"Malfoy" Hermione said. "I just want a place to sit down and rest my feet without getting bothered right now."

A nice, peaceful rest that he was a doing a great job disrupting in more than one level. Hermione felt torn between her head and her heart. Her head was annoyed by the banter but her heart, or her loins, wanted to strip him naked and have her wicked way with him. However, she would not tell him that.

"That's still avoiding your friends." Draco drawled. "Otherwise, you would be here with either Potty or Weasel or anyone of the dozens of people you came in with."

Hermione paused. She tried to figure out the right words to say.

"It was a bit stuffy inside." Hermione started carefully. "There are also a lot of people who I barely know trying to ask about my personal life."

That was a bit of a lie. The only ones who were trying to found out about her personal life were the reporters, particularly the ones from _Witch Weekly_. Hermione, Ginny and Fleur made sure that they avoid the reporters even though in Fleur and Ginny's mind there was a chance that one of them was Hermione's mate.

Draco inhaled on his cigar. She could tell that there was a retort coming. She knew that she should leave now to avoid any confrontation but her veela side wanted to stay. Admittedly, she was curious as well. What made her veela side pick Malfoy as her mate in the first place?

"I'm surprised." Draco finally said. "The people I know who don't like the press snooping around are people who have something to hide."

He inhaled on his cigar and gave her a smirk.

"What could Gryffindor's perfect little princess be hiding?"

Hermione thought of her heritage. She thought of Anthony and of Charlie. Any of those secrets would give reporters many things to write for their next article. She was not eager to tell Malfoy about either of those secrets as well.

"Everybody has their secrets Malfoy." Hermione said, trying to sound blasé about it. "Mine are just my measurements and how much money I spend a year on Ben & Jerry's. That does not mean that I would tell the whole Wizarding world about it."

"Is Ben & Jerry's some sort of homosexual kink shop I don't know about?" Draco asked.

Hermione quirked an eyebrow.

"No. It's a muggle company that sells ice cream."

His smirk dropped slightly, as if he was disappointed.

"I was hoping for something a little bit more interesting than that."

"I'm sorry that I'm not entertaining enough for you Malfoy." Hermione said. "Maybe you should go back to your Slytherin friends. I'm sure that you would find their presence more satisfying."

"No thanks. I would rather not spend my night glaring and gossiping about the people around me. Especially when there are a lot of ears on the wall."

Hermione had no reply for that. It would seem that the Slytherins were gossiping about people around the room. An activity, she was sure, that would lead to more enemies than friends.

Malfoy's group of friends were not exactly popular since the Battle at Hogwarts, especially Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson.

Many people did not like Malfoy because of his role in the Hogwarts's invasion. People were also upset with him with his role during the war. However, there were some people could empathize with the pureblood lordling and what he did during the war. No one approved of what Malfoy did, but even members of the Order agreed that his actions were understandable if they squint hard.

The press, however, have no love for Pansy Parkinson. Her only offense during the war was that she tried to get Hogwarts to give up Harry Potter to the Dark Lord. Unlike Malfoy however, nobody could empathize with her. Everybody was scared of the Dark Lord like she was but she miscalculated. She made too much enemies while Harry made too many friends. When she tried to convince the Hogwarts population to give up Harry Potter, the students at Hogwarts chose to protect Harry and stood against her.

Hermione was not particularly interested in how the press depicted Pansy. However, judging from the few headlines in the Daily Prophet's page six Hermione glanced through, Pansy was not the Prophet's favorite socialite.

There were rumors of her leaving men's apartments in early mornings followed by articles of her stalking one of Malfoy's girlfriends. Articles point out that Pansy was not offered a seat to organizations and charities the Parkinson family were a part of for generations. Moreover, when she was invited to functions and events, there was always a brief mention on how she misbehaved.

She had no doubts that Malfoy's friends talked about her behind her back. What surprised her was that Malfoy admitted that he wanted to distance himself from his friends because they were talking about people behind their back. An activity, Hermione remembered, that he really enjoyed while they were at Hogwarts.

"It's surprising." Malfoy started. "I would never expect someone who has a squeaky clean reputation like you would avoid the press."

"Maybe the reason I have a squeaky clean reputation is because I avoid the press." Hermione drawled.

Malfoy gave her a teasing smirk that made the butterflies in Hermione's stomach flutter.

"Still, you and Weasel over there broke up but you both managed to keep your reputations. Even after Weasel started hooking up with that tart."

Hermione was irritated with how Malfoy referred to Ron and Lavender but she did not comment on it. Instead, she chose to make a snide remark.

"I think it helped that no one gave any interviews with that bug Rita Skeeter and her followers. Don't you just hate when some ferret tell your personal business to the press?"

Malfoy smirked and inhaled on his cigar. No doubt, he knew she was referring to the time he gave an interview to Rita Skeeter about Hermione's relationship with Harry during Fourth year.

"Hey, can you blame me? You and Potter were so close that everybody in Slytherin was surprised you end up getting together with Weasel instead of Potter." Malfoy said smirking. "I think the whole world was surprised when Potty got together with Weaselette while you end up with Weasel."

It felt odd to hear your mate pairing you up with other men. She felt oddly hurt and flattered at the same time.

Pursing her lips, Hermione replied by asking the first question that popped on her mind.

"How about you? You and Pansy were so close that I'm surprised that you guys aren't engaged right now."

Malfoy inhaled on his cigar but Hermione could tell that he was doing it to hide his grimace. The cigar was on its last leg. He threw his cigar across the balcony and lit up another cigar before he replied.

"Yeah, Pansy thought so too."

Malfoy did not elaborate, but Hermione suspected that there was more to the story. She kept quiet and soon enough the silence pushed Malfoy to tell her more.

"We were never really officially together back in Hogwarts. I consider her as a good friend and we had fun. She was a bit clingy and had a thing for leather, but we had fun." He never elaborated what fun meant but Hermione did not want to know.

"Pansy on the other hand thought that I would propose to her any minute back at Hogwarts and she still thinks that way." He inhaled on his newly lit cigar. "I try to tell her that I see her as a friend and nothing more she just laughs it off and told me that I'm just in denial. I even tried introducing her to my girlfriends but she just tells them that I am 'sowing my wild oats' with them and soon enough that I would propose to her."

"That's…. scary." Hermione said.

Hermione knew from their Hogwarts days that Parkinson could be very possessive with Malfoy but Hermione would never expect that that Pansy would say something so disrespectful and delusional. Who in their right mind would tell a woman that she would marry her boyfriend? The scariest part was Hermione could see herself doing the same thing.

She had bouts of jealousy every time she saw an article about Malfoy and his latest conquest. She always measured them up to see if they were better than she was. She always imagined that they were snotty and high maintenance when she never even met them. All of Malfoy's girls could be perfectly nice women.

Hermione hated to admit it but a part of her wanted to things to work out with Malfoy in the end. She entertained the thought that maybe; just maybe, Malfoy went up here to hit on her. He would ask her out on a date and she would say yes. Their first day would be somewhere casual, maybe a park or even in a quaint restaurant; somewhere people would barely blink to see the two of them together. Another and another followed their first date. The thought was foolish now that she really thought about it.

Malfoy went on and on about Pansy, though in between the lines she could tell that he was talking about his bachelorhood. He made it perfectly clear that he did not want to marry Pansy. He made it clear that he was enjoying his bachelorhood. He made it perfectly clear that he did not plan to marry anyone anytime soon. Not when he was seeing what the world could offer.

Malfoy found out that women were eager to date him because they all thought that they could be that one woman who would turn his life around. He recounted how one woman tried to make him fall in love with her by sending him gift after gift. Another one tried to be a mother figure to him. While another tried to take him to exotic places without realizing that he already went to everywhere she wanted to visit.

It was too much for Hermione to handle right now. Especially when he started detailing how girls were practically throwing themselves at him for his money, good looks, and bad boy image.

"Malfoy, while it's nice to see you drone on and on about your conquests, what do you want from me right now?"

Malfoy looked at her innocently. "What? Can't I talk to an old school mate?"

"We were hardly friends during school Malfoy. Why did you come to an occupied balcony when there are other unoccupied balconies around? Why did you disturb a perfectly good breeze with your disgusting cigar? Why are you here talking about your gir-"

Hermione paused. She sounded irrational and even… jealous. That really disturbed her.

"I'm sorry." Hermione said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you that way."

Malfoy chose to say nothing about it. Instead, he put out his cigar and leaned on the balcony only three feet away from where she was sitting.

"You know you could just get up and leave if my presence is bothering you so much." Malfoy said.

Hermione wanted to reply that maybe he should have taken the hint when she said that he should go back to his Slytherin friends but instead she chose to stay quiet.

They let the silence take over the conversation. Hermione turned away from him and tried to enjoy the silence as much as possible. It was odd, she felt serene just sitting on the railings with Malfoy standing right next to her. Normally she would worry about finishing her readings in class but at this very moment, she felt serene.

"I just realized." Malfoy said, destroying the moment. "I've been talking about my conquests but I haven't asked you about yours." Malfoy said. "I know that you and Weasel have been broken up for a while now. Do you have someone in your life right now?"

"No." Hermione said. It sounded a bit too quick for her liking but she was eager to go back to the serene silence instead of starting another verbal fight with him.

"No? Not even someone to play around with until Potty gets his act together and pursue you?"

"Why do you insist that Harry and I would get together?"

Malfoy gave her a knowing smirk. Hermione did not like what it implied.

"Come on, Granger. I'm trying to be friendly for once here." Malfoy said.

This made Hermione snort. He had a funny way of trying to be friendly with her.

"Fine, so I was hoping that I could ruffle your feathers when I saw it were you sitting at the balcony." Malfoy admitted. "But I think it's unfair that I talked about myself and my friends while you just sit there and snort at me. So what do you do these days?"

"I'm studying to be a medi-magic researcher at St. Mungo's." Hermione said.

Malfoy chuckled which Hermione replied with an inquisitively raised eyebrow.

"It just seemed so typical of what you would do." Malfoy said. "Bright, moralistic witch graduates Hogwarts and signs up in a very difficult course, either in medicine or in politics. She works hard, beats out everybody in the class, and makes the right connections. Said witch did all that hard work with the hopes of making the world a better place."

He said the last part with a mockingly dreamy voice.

"Oh shut it Malfoy." Hermione said. Her face was red with both anger and embarrassment.

"Oh come on Granger." Malfoy said. "Don't tell me that wasn't your plan when you signed up to St. Mungo's."

Hermione's blush was all the answer Malfoy needed.

"Let me guess, you already have a specific ailment in mind to cure when you signed up." Malfoy guessed.

Shyly, Hermione nodded.

"Typical." Malfoy muttered. He lit up a cigar, not caring if Hermione did not like to smell his smoke.

"At least I'm actually doing something in my life." Hermione piped up. "I don't see you doing anything productive since the war ended."

"I am doing something with my life." Malfoy said. "I'm enjoying it."

He inhaled on his cigar and let out a large puff of smoke.

"Granger, I think the most disturbing part about you is that the war didn't seem to affect you."

Hermione opened her mouth to retort but Malfoy interrupted her instead.

"The war seemed just nothing to you. You were just held back for a year then you went on with your life."

Hermione slid down the balcony and marched toward Malfoy.

"I don't understand where you got this crazy idea that the war didn't affect me Malfoy." Hermione hissed.

"Oh yeah? You still have all your friends and family. You are still pursuing the career that your dream job. You still have a sterling reputation. Heck, if anything, you are even more perfect now than ever before. You have an Order of Merlin while my father and I could barely walk down Diagon Alley without someone hissing at us."

Hermione realized that he was talking out of spite and jealousy. She knew that there was no wining this argument, so she let him say what he needed to say.

"Even though you're this insufferable, high-strung little outsider, everybody treats you as this perfect little princess. Why don't we change that?" Draco asked

He grabbed her arm and practically dragged her to toward the light where many people could see her. Making sure that her face was visible to anyone looking through the French windows, he placed a peck right on her lips.

The peck electrified Hermione. The peck was not even a half a second long but she felt energized. It felt like she drank a gallon of coffee. She felt like she could run a marathon. She felt like she could memorize all the magical properties of the ingredients inside Professor Oliver's cupboard while doing jumping jacks.

"Let's see if your reputation changes after tonight."

Hermione glared at him. He may be her mate, but he was still the immature and vindictive.

She pushed him away, which Malfoy was all too happy to oblige. He left her alone at the balcony but Hermione already had enough fresh air. She walked toward her table where here friends were waiving at her.

On her way, she spotted Malfoy with the beautiful woman who was eager to try if she could be that one woman who would turn his life around.

Hermione practically shook her head. Malfoy was an ass then, he was an ass now. No woman could change that.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Ownership of characters. I no has it .

A.N. I hit another pacing problem. I wanted to add another scene on this chapter but it felt right to stop it here. I already know-ish what to write for the next chapter but the next update would take a while because of midterms.

Yes, there are a lot of grammatical errors on this chapter. I wanted to get this up as soon as possible so I could go back to studying. On that note, I am still looking for a beta, someone who I could bounce ideas with and someone who could correct my grammar. The last chapter was horrible.

Special thanks to fspsarcastic, guest, Amber-isright, dutch potterfan, Elased and River, who made it a point to comment on every single chapter in one day.

Ch. 6

The day after the Victory Ball, the _Daily Prophet_, _Witch Weekly_ and even _the Quibbler_ all published stories about the Ministry's Victory ball. In fact, all the stories they published in those publications were about the Victory ball.

_The Daily Prophet's_ front-page story was about the Wizarding World coming together in order to help the poor orphans. It should be noted that the orphans was not mentioned in the paper for the rest of the newspaper.

_The Wizarding Home Monthly_ magazine, were already advertising that they would have a 12 page spread of the Nott household. Complete with an inspiration board created by the party planner. It included before pictures, preparations and the results.

While the newspapers generally mentioned who attended and who they came with, _Witch Weekly_ detailed everything happened that night. There was a section of who wore what dress. There was a list of the top ten best-dressed witches in the entire ball. Surprisingly Hermione made the list.

There was an entire four-page spread about the Golden Trio. One page was just a glossy picture of them standing together at the ball, perhaps while they were giving their mandatory interview. Though neither Harry, Ron and Hermione gave them an interview, the article was written to give an impression that they did.

In the article, they wrote everything they could find about the three of them. The article talked about Ron and Hermione's breakup and Harry's possible engagement to Ginny. The article talked about what they have been doing in the past year.

There was also a little blurb about Hermione talking to an unknown blonde-haired man at the balcony. The only proof the blurb had was that the woman at the balcony had the same color dress robes as Hermione. This was all the proof that was needed because Hermione was the only person at the ball who was wearing light salmon dress robes.

That little blurb caused a lot of intrigue. Hermione Granger's mysterious blonde man led to many speculations coming from Rita Skeeter and other professional gossipmongers like her for the next week. Those who spotted the peck at the ball confirmed the rumor in their afternoon Tea Parties. Those who have too much time nothing else important to write about enjoyed figuring who might be Hermione Granger's mystery beau. Was it someone she knew from school? Was it one of the foreign diplomats from the continent?

The Wizarding public became amateur detectives while they tried to figure out who could have captured the war heroine's heart. The only clue was that he was blonde. However, transfiguring hair to look blonde was spell most people learned during their sixth year Charms class therefore the man could be a natural red head or even a brunette.

The rumors turned Hermione's week after the Victor Ball from exciting to exhausting.

Monday started out really nice. Hermione went to school, had her usual chat with Anthony and they made plans to study next week for their final test. They planned to lock themselves in the library after her teatime with Harry.

During teatime with Harry, he mentioned that he planned to propose to Ginny soon. Harry planned to ask her between now and Christmas. The news made Hermione squeal in excitement. He wanted to surprise her. He wanted to wait until the paparazzi stopped talking about a possible engagement before he propose to her.

Hermione agreed to come down to Gringotts with him on Friday when they both have most of the day off.

She spent her Tuesday studying with classes and studying for upcoming finals. She re-read her essays and made a couple of corrections. Overall, she had a busy day but she was happy to finish many things she wanted to do before the weekend.

Wednesday was when the letters start to arrive. It started out as a small note from Witch Weekly asking for an interview about her beau. Hermione rolled her eyes and dismissed the note. She was trying to be a medical researcher; she had no time to satisfy the curiosities of those who tried to live vicariously through her. Besides, she did not have a new beau to talk to them about.

She later found out what the hubbub was about through a patient she passed by on her way to her dorm. Two nosy old women were whispering amongst each other when she passed by.

"Excuse me." One of them said. "Are you that Granger girl? The famous mudblood who helped Harry Potter defeat You-Know-Who?"

Hermione brushed off the derogatory term and nodded.

"Oh that's good. You see, my friend and I here are trying to figure out who your mysterious beau was during the Ministry's victory ball. Tell us, is he an old friend at Hogwarts or a businessman from the continent?"

Hermione blinked in surprise.

The two old biddies showed her an article of this week's Witch Weekly. And though it was only a little blurb, she could tell that the patients around her were eager for an answer.

She told them that it was an old friend at Hogwarts. No, there was nothing romantic about their encounter. It was just a peck goodbye the old friend thought would be funny to give her.

Hermione brushed of the incident as two old ladies with too much of their time nosing around on other people's business. Thursday was when she first realized how the little rumor had a big impact on her life.

Unlike Hogwarts, everybody at St. Mungo's was too busy with studying for the test or their patients to care for the latest celebrity gossip. Therefore, when a reporter confronted Hermione during her lunch break, it came as a big surprise. The man was asked to leave right away, which he complied because he was on the staff and student only part of the building.

It all went downhill on Friday when Hermione went out with Harry. Harry planned to check his family's vault to see if there were any rings in his family vault he could use as an engagement right. Hermione went along with him to Gringotts but they could not find anything that seemed appropriate as an engagement ring.

Harry and Hermione suspected that was the cause so they agreed to check out the Jewelry store at Diagon Alley. Hopefully they might find something appropriate there. As a last resort, they plan to visit a muggle jewelry store.

Their plans were interrupted when a reporter came up to take pictures of them at the lobby of Gringotts for everyone to see. He was a confident ass. He had the hungry look on his eyes when he spotted Harry and Hermione.

"Harry Potter! Hermione Granger! What are you two doing at Gringotts?"

Harry stared at him in surprise while Hermione just glared at him.

"Well, I'm sure you two are just spending time together. It's nice to see that the two of you are still friends after all these years." The reporter chatted on. "Hey, since you two are such good friends, I'm sure that Harry Potter here knows who your mystery man. Right Ms. Granger? Mr. Potter?"

"Wha-" Harry gave him an odd look. While Hermione shook her head about the absurdity about it all.

"The blonde fella Hermione spent some time with during the Ministry's Victory Ball." The reporter explained. "Is he from the continent or is he from Britain? Can we get a name for the article?"

Despite the clearly curious expression Harry had, he tried his best to get out of Gringotts with Hermione. Ever since fourth grade, Harry learned that the best way to deal with annoying reporters was to ignore them.

Harry pointed at the small café near Gringotts but they were greeted with curious glances. Though the people at the small café tried to hide it, they could not help but point at them and look at them curiously.

With a quick tap on the shoulder, Harry indicated that they should leave the place. They mutually agreed that going in a jewelry store in the middle of Diagon alley would yield the same result and none of them were eager to go out to Muggle London without muggle cash. That would mean going back to Gringotts to exchange currency. By then it was almost time for them to go back to school and work.

"Well this day was a bust." Hermione said.

"Don't worry about it." Harry said. "Maybe it's too soon to buy the ring anyway."

Hermione nodded. They made plans to go out to Muggle London to buy the ring later.

The weekend gave no relief for Hermione as the reports sent her multiple requests for an interview. Because St. Mungo's was public property, she avoided going out of her dorm room for the rest of the weekend. She only went out during meal times and if she needed something at the library.

On Sunday, she was obligated to go at the Weasley's weekly roast. She was too tired to transfigure an old dress that day so she put on the first one that caught her eye.

The Sunday roast was an awkward affair. The food was remarkable as always. There were still good conversations and some fun games but the atmosphere was significantly tenser. She could tell that the mysterious blonde man was an elephant in the room.

Molly seemed a bit disappointed with her for some reason. Fleur and Ginny on the other hand were eager to get her alone so they could talk about the mysterious blonde man she talked to at Nott's balcony. Once they did caught her on her own, Hermione quickly told them that the blonde man was not her mate. She told them that he was an old schoolmate who got too excited after seeing her.

Both women were disappointed at the thought and Hermione felt bad about lying to them. Nonetheless, she knew that it was the best course of action. The two of them would switch to matchmaker mode once they knew that the blonde man was indeed her mate. She still did not know how they would react if they know that Malfoy was her mate, but the last thing she wanted was for anyone to push her towards that vindictive, bitted ass.

While the Weasley family seized their curious glares once Hermione explained to them that she didn't had a mysterious beau, the press were still eager to feed the flames.

The next issue of _Witch Weekly_ published the eligible bachelors that could be Hermione's mysterious beau. While the publication suggested multiple men, the editors strongly suspected that it was Anthony Goldstein. After all, Goldstein was blonde, smart and he knew Hermione from Hogwarts. The editors also pointed out that Hermione and Anthony were lab partners and they spent a considerable amount of time together according to the students at St. Mungo's.

Molly told Hermione about the article that Sunday but she thought nothing would come of it. After all, Anthony was only one of the many suggested men in the article. But her hopes for a peaceful life were crushed when she entered her Restorative Medical Potions class a week after the Ministry's Victory ball.

Everybody was eyeing Hermione when she entered. During class, she spotted a couple of people watching how she and Anthony interacted with each other. Students who were busy studying for the finals a week ago were now focused on the latest gossip. Sadly, they were not the only ones who were watching her during class.

Apparently, the press heard that Anthony and she were in the same class that day therefore they sent a paparazzo to take pictures. The paparazzo tried to take a picture during class by trying to find the right angle to take a picture of them from the window. Thankfully, the professor closed the curtains. That did not stop the photographer from waiting outside their door to see if he could take a picture of Anthony and Hermione after class.

What was worse that Anthony was very gruff with her that morning. Usually they start the class greeting each other and asking what they did during the weekend. That day, Anthony barely even glanced at her. She could tell that he was in a bad mood therefore she chose to ignore it and she just hoped that it would not ruin their study session for the finals.

By the time Hermione arrived at Harry's office for their weekly tea, she was ready to rant.

"Why did we left Hogwarts Harry?" Hermione asked when she entered Harry's office.

"Because we were finished with our education"

"I know but the press didn't bother us at Hogwarts. Sure, we had letters from people we do not know telling us how to live our lives but we knew when those letters were coming."

Harry gave her a smile.

"Hard day in school?" Harry asked

"Yes." Hermione said.

"So I'm guessing you want to have chamomile tea while you tell me all about it?" Harry asked.

"You're an angel." Hermione said.

Hermione relayed to Harry what happened during the day. She told him about the increasingly aggressive press and how it was already affecting her relationships with her professor and her classmates, particularly Anthony.

"Is the press bothering Anthony?" Harry asked.

"The photographer tried to take his picture when we got out of class, but I don't know if they were bothering him or his family." Hermione said.

"So he's okay then?" Harry asked.

"I guess." Hermione said, sipping on her chamomile tea. "He was not really eager to talk to me today. He did not even confirm if we are still studying together tonight."

She tapped her on her mug nervously. She took a sip but the chamomile tea did not calm her down.

Harry tried to distract her with treats and a funny story on how a dunderhead messed up a mission. The newbie thought that the best way to gain respect from his colleagues was to act macho. He puffed his chest and even tried to intimidate the people they were trying to question. So much for good cop, bad cop.

Hermione responded appropriately to Harry's story. She nodded, asked the appropriate questions but she was clearly not engaged like the other times Harry tells her funny stories about his work.

"Are you okay?"

"No, I'm okay." Hermione said exasperatedly. "I'm sorry for not paying attention to you Harry. But finals are around the corner and I still need to compare notes with Anthony for some of our classes and I still don't know if he was going to talk to me."

"Is he mad at you?" Harry asked.

"Yes, no… I don't know." Hermione said.

Harry just stared at her.

"I don't know why the press is bothering Anthony when he wasn't even at the ball." Harry said.

"Yes! Exactly." Hermione perked up.

Maybe if she sent the letter pointing this out to the editors of Witch Weekly, they would leave Anthony alone and he would not be mad at her.

Harry nodded. "But what's odd to me is that you are very avoidant about the entire thing. Not only to the press, but to the Weasleys as well."

Hermione immediately raked her brain for an excuse.

"That's because it's nothing Harry." Hermione said flippantly. "An old classmates of ours from Hogwarts talked to me at the ball and gave me a kiss goodbye."

"That isn't the story you told Ginny." Harry pointed out. "You told her that the old classmate got overeager and kissed you goodbye."

"Oh come on Harry, he was overeager when he kissed me goodbye." Hermione tried her best.

"Furthermore, you keep referring to the guy at the balcony as 'an old classmate'. If it was just any old classmate, you would have called him by his name right now." Harry pointed out.

Hermione pursed her lips and contemplated on what to say next.

"Does it have something to do with the secret you share with Fleur and Ginny?" Harry asked seriously.

He sipped on his tea while Hermione stared at him with a scared expression.

"What makes you think that I have a secret with Fleur and Ginny?" Hermione asked.

"I know because of the way Ginny and Fleur interact with each other. Ginny doesn't even like Fleur. She even used to call her 'phlegm' remember? They still do not get along from time to time. But whenever you are concerned, they always put that animosity behind them."

Hermione kept quiet.

"More than that, you guys act like you guys have a secret. Part of me was disappointed that you didn't talk to me about it since I am your best friend but I figured it's 'Girl Problems'."

Harry used air quotes to emphasize "Girl Problems" which almost made Hermione grin if she was not panicking.

"But I could see that it's bigger than that now. I'm your best friend Hermione, I could tell that you've been hiding a secret for a while now and it's catching up to you."

Hermione looked at him with a mixture of shame and love. He was absolutely right. He was her best friend and she should feel secure enough to tell him anything. So she did. She told him about her heritage while Harry sat down and listened to her intently. She told him about her problem figuring out which traits passed to her and which ones were not.

She told him how her heritage affected her decisions over the years. How she had to break up with Ron because he wanted to start a family while she was afraid to give it to him in fear of abandoning him and their children. How she refused to be involved in a serious relationship afterwards.

She also told him how she suddenly became more conscious of her appearances and so does others. How she became critical of what looked good on her and what did not. She credited a lot of her knowledge to Fleur and Ginny who helped guide her to all things girly.

"Blimey Hermione. That's pretty big." Harry said.

Hermione nodded. "I didn't want to tell you because I'm still confused about a lot of things. I learned a lot about myself this past couple of months but I'm there are still traits I'm unsure about."

"Blimey, is that why you wanted to become a medical researcher?"

Hermione nodded. "Muggles have been using genetics for a while now and slowly they are piecing together the Human Genome Project. However, the magical world still had not caught on. I want to start a Magical Genome project to see if we could isolate the alleles that make a person magical, if werewolves change genetics after they were bitten and to see what makes French Veelas different from Greek Veelas."

Hermione rambled on about what she imagined the Magical Genome Project could do. It was the first time Hermione ever told anybody about her dream because for some reason she thought that questions about her project would lead to more questions that would eventually lead to her secret. It was freeing to talk about it with Harry. And in kind, Harry listened intently and he even made a few suggestions that Hermione did not even thought of.

"I love that you're so passionate about this but this project is big." Harry said. "And I mean really big. It could take years, maybe even a century!"

Hermione smiled at him. "Yeah. I don't really expect to be alive to see it all finished but I hope that I could see a significant progress during my lifetime."

Harry sipped on his tea but he realized that it was already cold so he placed it back down.

"I think this project is brilliant." Harry said. "But what concerned me is that as you said, there's a fifty-fifty chance that you might die if you're not mated when you're thirty. And studying genetics and magical medicine takes time that you should be spending looking for your mate instead."

Hermione paused and looked down on the table.

"Hermione, I know that you love school and all but you need to be alive for a very long time to finish this project. Your studies could wait." Harry placed his hand over hers. He tried to look at her eyes but she avoided it.

"Unless… Hermione do you already know who's your mate?" Harry asked.

Hermione shook her head but she knows that he knows that she was lying.

"Hermione. I'm your best friend. I'm already upset that you told Ginny and Fleur about your heritage before you told me. Fleur! Hermione. You didn't even like her during fourth year and you told her before you told me."

"Fine," Hermione conceded. "He's that ass Draco Malfoy."

Harry stared at her. His mouth was opening and closing like a fish.

"Does he know?" Harry asked.

Hermione shook her head.

"I talked to him during the Victory ball and he was still the same ass when we were going to school. The last thing I wanted was to tell him that I'm actually a veela and he was my mate because I know that he would just laugh in my face."

Hermione magically warmed up the tea before pouring a cuppa for herself.

"Wow." Harry said. He magically warmed up his tea and took a sip. "So all along, he was the mysterious blonde?"

Hermione nodded.

"But doesn't that mean that he had some affection to you? Why don't you go talk to him to see if he wanted to date you?" Harry said encouragingly.

Hermione shook her head.

"That peck was not affectionate." Hermione said. "He knew that the best way to discredit a woman was to make her look like a slut. He was trying to tarnish my image Harry. He said so himself."

"Bloody Hell." Harry said. "He is still an ass."

Harry stared onto his cup.

"So what are you going to do now?"

Hermione shrugged.

"I already decided to carry on with my life." Hermione said. "I'm going to study hard in school, start the Magical Genome Project. If I'm going to die when I'm thirty, then so be it. That would just mean that I have eight years to work on my dream."


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I write fanfics as fun. I don't profit from it nor do I claim them as my own. I am not Stephen Moffat.

AN. Hey, sorry about taking so long. I just needed time off to study for midterms which ended with an idiot posted a picture of himself carrying assault weapons on my college's facebook page. (Perks of living in LA).

Special thanks to dutch potterfan, Blackcat8539, Cat130, and annaea3077

Chapter 7

On four o'clock sharp, Hermione left Harry's office to meet Anthony for their study date.

She knew that chances were that he was still mad at her so, she bought Anthony's favorite sandwich from the small café across from St. Mungo's. She bought the same sandwich that he ordered every time they decided to skip the boring hospital food St. Mungo's serve to their students.

She knocked on the door and hoped that he would not slam it in her face. She was holding her breathe when he finally opened the door. He was dressed in a simple sweater and pajama bottoms, the standard uniform for all medi-wizard students. His eyes were heavy with tired though Hermione suspected it was because of studying.

"Hey." She started. "I brought your favorite sandwich to eat before we start studying."

Anthony did not skip a beat. He thanked Hermione, grabbed her offering and welcomed her to his room.

Their test was cumulative but thankfully Professor Oliver gave them a study guide that helped them streamline their studying. They tried to answer every question on it. Hermione even tried to write an essay for each question which made Anthony chuckle.

After they finished with their Restorative Medi-potion class, they tested each other for their Common Magical Maladies Diagnosis class, Hermione's favorite.

"A missing limb." Hermione tested him.

"Is it physically still there or is it completely gone?" Anthony asked.

"Physically still there."

"Vanishing sickness, very early stages. Caused by a bite of the Vanishing bug." Anthony answered correctly. "Irregular boils pattern, hard breathing and vomiting."

"Ugh, hard breathing and vomiting? That sounds unpleasant." Hermione said.

"I know." Anthony smirked.

"Sounds like potion contamination caused by improperly cleaned cauldron." Hermione said.

"Arrgh, you just know that it's going to be on the test with how much they drill that slogan on our head."

"A clean cauldron keeps potions from becoming poisons." They chorused which made the two of them smirk.

Hermione looked through her notes to look for a good question to ask Anthony but she was stopped by Anthony's tsk.

"It's getting pretty late." Anthony said nervously.

Hermione glanced at the clock and saw that it was barely past eight. Hermione had stayed in Anthony's place past twelve before and thought it was odd that he was worried about it.

"No. It's still pretty early and we still need to review a couple of maladies."

"Are you sure?"

Hermione gave him a confident nod. Hesitantly, she and Anthony went back to cramming as much information into their heads as possible.

By nine-thirty, Hermione already felt the headache coming in from too much studying. She stopped reading and stared into blank space, hoping that it would help with her headache. Anthony saw her and he started packing up.

"I guess it's time to call it a night huh?" Anthony asked.

Hermione gave him a tired smile. "Yeah, we hit a wall today. Do you want to have a coffee break?"

Anthony shook his head. "It's really getting late. You know what muggle neurologist said. We need that REM sleep to make sure that those neurons connect." Anthony said.

"Somebody's been reading my muggle psychology books." Hermione teased.

"Hey, it's really interesting. There's a few things I want to try out with some of the patients. Particularly, I want to try Operant Conditioning with those little kids who run around when the nurses need to check on their vital signs."

"Well, I guess I need to go to bed and make sure my neurons connect." Hermione said.

"Now get out of my dorm." Anthony said jokingly. "Get out before your boyfriend starts to ask why you're in another man's room so late."

The last statement surprised Hermione. Where could he possibly get that idea from?

"I don't have a boyfriend." Hermione stated.

Anthony's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh? Is it a secret relationship or something?"

Hermione shook her head. "No it's not. I don't have a secret boyfriend. I just don't have a boyfriend period."

"Oh." Anthony said.

Only, it sounded like he understood something other than what Hermione said.

Hermione gathered her things and headed towards the door but she was stopped by Anthony.

"Hermione, can I take you out to dinner sometime?" Anthony said which surprised Hermione.

"Not anytime soon with the finals hanging over our heads." Anthony said immediately after he noticed the surprised look on Hermione's face. "How about after the finals? We could celebrate at the same time."

"Dinner sounds really nice Anthony." Hermione said. "Eating out with a friend after a week of finals sounds really lovely."

Anthony cringed.

"I was hoping that it wouldn't be a dinner between two friends." Anthony said with a nervous tone on his voice. "I was hoping that I could take you out on a date."

Hermione felt frozen in place. She had hoped that Anthony got the hint that she was not interested in seeing him as other than a friend.

"I'm really flattered Anthony." Hermione said. "But I am not really looking for a relationship right now."

Anthony's face was the picture of disappointment and it pained Hermione to disappoint him.

"It's not that you're a really great guy Anthony." Hermione said. "You're ambitious, funny and really good looking but I am simply not looking for a relationship right now. "

Anthony frowned, though he hid it from her when he shook his head. "So in the meantime you're sticking with friends with benefits? It's just a bit surprising to me since you don't seem the type to settle anything less than relationship."

Instead of reprimanding him as Anthony expected, Hermione gave him a sad smile.

"I never thought that I would be the type of woman who settles for friends-with-benefits relationship either. But life has a funny way of changing things."

Hermione turned around and was about to reach the door until Anthony stopped her yet again.

"Hermione, did something happen?" Anthony asked. "Is there a reason why you're settling with meaningless relationships? Was it something that happened between you and Ron?"

Anthony walked toward her and pushed a stray hair behind her ear. His beautiful blue eyes looked straight at her.

"You know that I'm your friend and that you could tell me anything right?"

Hermione looked at Anthony's pleading eyes. She felt guilty. Is that how he saw it? That she was just using him?

"No. Ron has nothing to do with it." Hermione said. "We broke up because we were going nowhere and I knew that he wanted to start a family as soon as possible."

Anthony did not reply. Instead, he looked at her inquisitively with his beautiful blue eyes.

"I just found out something about me and my family history that made me realize that getting into a deep relationship right now is not the best choice."

That was a lie. She knew it. He knew it. He knew she knew that he knew it.

"What did you found out?"

"I found out… that I'm a veela."

That came out easier than Hermione expected. She didn't expect to tell him her secret so openly. Perhaps it was because he already saw her naked. Or maybe her earlier encounter with Harry made it easier for her to tell somebody else.

Like Harry, Anthony looked surprised about the news.

"A what?" Anthony asked, bewildered.

"A veela. Semi-human, semi-magical humanoids that are closely related to Sirens." Hermione repeated the textbook description with disdain.

"Blimey Hermione. I didn't expect this." Anthony covered his face in disbelief. "I expected a bad breakup or wanting to focus on school but not this."

Now it was Hermione's turn to wait for his reply. She knew that he would have a lot of questions that she still didn't know if she felt comfortable talking about.

"Are you a Greek Veela?" Anthony asked. "Because you have the hair."

Hermione shook her head.

"I'm a mix. My paternal grandmother was half French-Veela while my maternal grandmother is half Greek-Veela."

"And you're past twenty-one right?" Anthony asked.

Hermione nodded.

"Did you have your mate dream yet?"

Hermione shook her head. Even though she told Harry who her mate was, she still didn't want Anthony to know. At least not yet.

"So that means that you would probably have to find your mate the Greek-Veela way." Anthony mused. "Was I a candidate?"

Hermione shook her head and Anthony sighed sadly.

"I know that you're probably looking for your mate out there." Anthony said. "But why don't we date anyway just to see how it turns out?" Anthony asked.

"Anthony you know we can't-"

"I know. I know." Anthony interrupted. "I know you would have to look for your mate out there. I'm not asking for an exclusive relationship here. I don't expect us to get married and live in a nice cottage by the countryside. I'm just asking for dinner."

"But you said earlier that I was scared of relationships."

"I know what I said earlier. But I never asked for a relationship. I just asked you for dinner." Anthony said. "A perfectly nice dinner from a guy who wants to date you. If you want, we could walk hand in hand later. Maybe we'll end up in your dorm room instead of mine."

Hermione shook her head in amused disbelief.

"We can't have a romantic relationship Anthony." Hermione said plainly.

"And again, this is just dinner." Anthony said. "Most men don't expect to marry every woman they go on a date with. Most men just want to spend time with a beautiful woman. Then again, most men don't know if they were going to marry the woman they are dating with until much later on."

Despite his explanation, Hermione was not moved.

"We don't know if we're going to be fed up with each other two weeks from now." Anthony added. "Heck, maybe one of our patients would vomit acid all over me and I would melt into pudding."

This made Hermione chuckle.

"Why not just give this a chance?"

Despite his jovial tone, Anthony's eyes were pleading. She would hate to disappoint him, especially when he was just asking for one little date. But she just wanted to know one little thing before she agreed.

"Why are you taking such a huge risk with me?"

"Because I like you Hermione." Anthony said. "You're smart, beautiful and fun to be with. I really want to date you. And when a man really wants to pursue a woman, he lets nothing get in his way."

**June 12, 2002**

**Confirmed: Mystery Blonde at the Victory Ball Is Actually Anthony Goldstein**

Here at _Witch Weekly_, we had multiple reports that war heroine and future healer Hermione Granger is indeed very close with the brilliant and handsome Anthony Goldstein. Readers who visited St. Mungo's in the past week spotted the cute couple around St. Mungo's.

At first Witch Weekly brushed off the reports as two friends working together but we recently had reports that the cute couple were spotted in Valentino's Italian restaurant at Diagon Alley.

The two Healers-in-Training were seen laughing and flirting together in the mid-range restaurant. As a Healer-in-Training, Mr. Goldstein must have dug deep to treat the very special lady.

Here at _Witch Weekly_, we wish the couple good luck!

(Psst, Hermione. He's a keeper.)

**November 27, 2002**

**Former Death-Eater Dates Five Women in the Past Month**

Former Death Eater Draco Malfoy was spotted dating five different witches in the past month. The man credited as a key figure at the invasion of Hogwarts quickly gained a reputation for his appetite for pureblood witches after the war.

However, England seems to have ran out of pureblood witches to fill his appetite as he is now outsourcing his conquests to the continents. Earlier last month, the Malfoy heir was spotted with a hot Spanish Senorita by the South of France. A week later, he was spotted partying in the Greek Islands with a Greek princess. Five days after that, he was seen taking out a beautiful German beauty to London's Wizarding night scene. A week later he was shopping the streets of Paris with a beautiful French heiress. Finally, last Sunday he was spotted at a Farmer's Market in Italy with a dark haired beauty. Were they making homemade pasta together?

By the rate the young Malfoy is going, he is on his way to date every Pureblood family in Europe.

We hope that the Malfoy heir finds his perfect princess fast.

In the meantime, here at _Witch Weekly_ would be crossing off every eligible bachelorette in Europe before Malfoy starts dating pureblood princesses in the Americas and Asia.

**April 30, 2003**

**Potter-Weasley are Officially Engaged?!**

Beautiful and intelligent Rita Skeeter was at Twilfitt and Tatting's to shop at their latest collection of shoes (might I recommend the cute black and white oxford shoes with pink bows) I spotted an old friend of mine. Long-time readers know that I have a close personal relationship with the Harry Potter and his friends after the Tri-wizard Tournament almost a decade ago.

Ginny Weasley told me exclusively that her long-time boyfriend the one and only Boy-Who-Lived Harry Potter finally proposed to her.

The little Weasley explained to me that the proposal came as a complete surprise.

"It was a beautiful." Ginny Weasley gushed. "It was so sudden. He came by my workplace and he asked if we could get some hot cocoa. We bought our cocoa and he suggested that we walk around a muggle park so we did.

I thought nothing of it because we do this from time to time but he just proposed to me right by the muggle swings."

The happy couple would officially announce their betrothal to the public in an engagement party where I would be attending.

Look forward to my exclusive coverage.

**May 3, 2003**

**The Golden Girl is Missing: Is the Golden Trio Broken up?**

During the Annual Victory Ball last night, the Golden Trio surprised the Wizarding World when they arrived without Hermione Granger, reportedly the brains of the three.

When asked where was the' Brainy Beauty', best friend Harry Potter and Ron Weasley replied that she was focusing on University. However, some suspect that it was because she was drifting away from her friends while other say that it meant she was distancing herself from the Wizarding World.

However, the Daily Prophet doubts that story because Ms. Granger graduated from St. Mungo's Healer program a semester early.

Ms. Granger's professors and classmates expected her to work as a Healer with several famous patients. However, Ms. Granger practically disappeared from the Wizarding World after receiving her degree.

Nobody in the Wizarding public has seen Ms. Granger. Workers at the Ministry commented that she stopped attending her weekly tea with, best friend, Harry Potter.

We here at the Daily Prophet theorize that Ms. Granger was simply taking a few months off before committing a the rest of her life to saving other people's.

Wherever you are Ms. Granger, we wish you good luck.

**May 20, 2003**

**Former Death-Eater turned Playboy is in A Relationship with a Half-Blood**

Over the past few years, Draco Malfoy, former Death Eater and heir to the Malfoy fortune gained a reputation as a serial playboy with a taste for pureblood princesses. As anyone who keep track of _Witch Weekly _knows that Mr. Malfoy dated multiple women from upstanding wizarding families over the years.

Last weekend, Mr. Malfoy surprised even the biggest gossipmongers in town when he went out last night with Ms. Kasparian, a half-blood American.

Is it possible that Mr. Malfoy was bored of pureblood princesses? Is he reaching out across the pond to find the perfect wife? Or could Mr. Malfoy be, as the Americans call it, "slumming it"?

We here at Witch Weekly are eager to see what is coming next for Mr. Malfoy.

**November 27, 2003**

**War Heroine Spotted with Boyfriend**

Almost a year after Ms. Hermione Granger, Order of Merlin First class, disappeared from the Wizarding World, Ms. Granger was spotted at a Diagon Alley restaurant along with her Healer boyfriend Anthony Goldstein.

A little birdie told us that even though this is the first time couple was seen out and about for a long time, the date was more about business than pleasure-

Draco Malfoy flipped through the front page to make sure that his name showed up in this week's _Witch Weekly_ gossip roundup. Wanting to make sure that his latest conquest made it in.

Hopefully, the half-blood he dated this time helped with his and his family's reputation. She was pretty, but he knew a few half-bloods and purebloods who are prettier than her. That should give the impression that he actually cared about her even if she was a bit dull.

Last week he spent time with Janice….or was is Jessica? Anyway, he tried to have a nice cuppa with her at the newest Tea Shop in Diagon Alley only he ended up feeling drowsy after the first fifteen minutes.

He just hoped that not all of his work was for naught and it all depended on how Witch Weekly spun his date. Draco smiled upon reading the headline.

**Playboy Draco Malfoy out on a Date with Pretty Librarian**

Now it was for him to decide his next move. Would he take out the same girl again to confuse the press? Or would he ditch the boring librarian for someone more interesting?

It did not take long for Draco to summon his owl and pen a note inviting the boring librarian for another date this weekend. He made a note to bring a flask of espresso to bring along with him to keep him awake.

Finally, Draco could tell that public perception of him was changing. If dating a boring half-blood librarian was what it takes, then he would drink a hundred shots of espresso if he had to if not for one reason only. A reputation as a playboy was much better than a reputation as a Death Eater.


	8. Chapter 8

A.N.: I would be honest to you guys and say that I am going to attend my dream school starting 2015. It would be my first semester there and I want to focus on my transition. For that reason, I am going to try to finish this series by early January. If not, then this fic would be on semi-hiatus until summer 2015.

Special Thanks to Cat130, dutch potterfan, guest, Blue Luber5000, Kyutiepie, Princess of Mirkwood2 and to my beta/cheerleader Blackcat8539

Chapter 8

_We are Delighted to Announce the Engagement of_

_Harry James Potter &_

_Ginerva Molly Weasley _

_Please Join Us in Celebrating_

_Thursday, December 25, 2003_

_6:00 PM_

_At The Leaky Cauldron_

_London, England_

Hermione arrived at Leaky Cauldron at four o'clock sharp. Even though the Weasleys didn't ask her to help out, she wanted to. It would give her more time to spend time with them and chat with her old friends before all other guests arrive.

"Hermione! You came!" Ginny exclaimed when she spotted Hermione enter the old pub.

"Of course I came." Hermione said. "I wouldn't miss your engagement party for anything in the world."

"Good. I was afraid that we would have to kidnap you," Ginny said "George, Harry and Ron even had a plan if you didn't come by eight."

Hermione stepped inside the old pub where the last patrons of the day are finishing their drinks with Tom's encouragement.

"Come, the family is upstairs. We rented out a few rooms as a home base." Ginny said.

They climbed the ancient stairs where she saw most of the Weasley family running around. Molly directed everybody, Bill and George were on decorating crew and Andromeda was there taking care of Victoire and Teddy. Hermione could not see Harry or Ron but she bet that they were inside one of these rooms.

"Hermione!" Molly exclaimed upon seeing her. "It's good to see you."

"It's good to see you too Molly." Hermione said "I came a bit early to help out."

"Oh that's wonderful." Molly said. "Come help bring down the groceries. You'll find them down there, the door to the left."

Hermione walked to the room Molly pointed at and saw her best friends Harry and Ron trying to levitate all the bags of groceries, and failing. There were simply too many for two wizards to handle.

"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed when he spotted her.

"Harry!" Hermione excitedly said.

"Ron!" Ron exclaimed afterwards, which made the three of them laugh.

They chatted and updated one another in each other's lives. Hermione told them how she started interning for a genetic researcher at King's College. Harry told them how he was quickly climbing through the ranks, but Ron, on the other hand, was hospitalized for a month because of a botched experiment in George's shop.

"We were trying to make safer fireworks for the kids at Hogwarts." Ron smirked, anticipating Hermione's reaction.

"Ron Weasley!" Hermione scolded, "You and George have left Hogwarts for years now yet you guys are still coming up with ways to disrupt the place."

"Hey, the students buy our explosives anyhow. We just want to make it safer for everybody." Ron explained.

"Why not stop selling explosive to school age children altogether?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione, you talk like you didn't brew Polyjuice Potion during second year." Ron said. "If these kids want explosions, they would get it somehow, so we might as well make it safer for them."

Hermione had no reply to that.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione levitated the groceries in front of them downstairs. When they reached the ground floor, there were only two men left at the pub. One was eager to get on his way while the other one was trying to extend his stay as long as possible. He was probably curious to see what was going on tonight.

"Harry, Ron the groceries are supposed to be in the kitchen." Molly instructed. "George, Bill place the decorations on that table over there. Hermione and Fleur, can you both please help me out with cooking?"

Everybody did as they were told. The Weasley men started decorating the place by hanging banners and streamers under Ginny's instructions, adding more lamps to brighten up the place.

Hermione and Fleur helped Molly with food preparation for over a hundred guests. The pub's owner Tom already agreed to let them use the pots and pans. Though the Leaky Cauldron already served a variety of soups and pies, it would not be an engagement party without a few appetizers and a cake.

Molly immediately got started with baking a cake while Fleur and Hermione worked on making as many scotched eggs and mini sausage rolls as possible.

Thirty minutes before the party started, Hermione excused herself to make herself look presentable. She rushed upstairs towards one of the Weasley's rented room and changed her smelly top with an elegant blouse.

She checked herself on the mirror and found that her hair was messy and her eyes looked tired. She fixed her appearance with a few quick spells and she topped everything off with her favorite perfume.

When Hermione went back downstairs, the guests were already arriving. The sound of cheers and clanking pitchers filled the room. The pub was half-full with Harry and Ginny's friends and family from their school years as well as wizards and witches from the Ministry.

Hagrid was sitting in a booth drinking some Fire whiskey with Professor McGonagall, while Neville was nearby the fireplace chatting with Hannah Abbott. Andromeda arrived with Teddy who greeted everyone as they passed through a door.

"Mione! Mione!" Teddy said.

Teddy stopped right in front of Hermione, his smile reaching from ear to ear. The five-year-old's bright blue hair turned to the same curly chocolate locks that Hermione had.

"Where have you been? Why haven't I seen you for a really, really long time?" Teddy asked.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't play with you for a long time." Hermione said. "I was busy studying in a muggle university."

"Can't you play with me during the weekends? Why don't you join us every Sunday anymore? Don't you love us?"

"Of course I love you guys very much." Hermione said, emphasizing "very." "But I have other things I have to do and I can't come over and play with you all the time."

"Well can you play with me now?" Teddy asked.

"I'm sorry Teddy." Hermione said. "But I have to help out in the kitchen."

"I could help out with you." Teddy said. "That way you get finished faster and you could play with me sooner."

Without asking for permission, Teddy zoomed to the kitchen and Hermione followed.

The kitchen looked like a wreck but Molly was almost finished cooking. The cake was frosted, the soup was boiling over a stove and all Hermione had to do was bring the appetizers to the buffet table.

"Hermione, can I have one?" Teddy asked, pointing at the sausage rolls Hermione made earlier.

"Sure sweetheart." Hermione said.

She handed him a sausage roll, which made Teddy do an amusing little dance.

Hermione grabbed a tray to place on the buffet table on her way out, the cute munchkin following as he munched on his sausage roll.

"Now can we play?" Teddy asked once Hermione put the plate down.

"Sure, let's find a nice spot to-"

"Hermione!" Dean Thomas called out.

"Dean! It's been so long." Hermione hugged her old housemate.

"Where have you been? The newspaper told us that you basically disappeared." Dean asked.

"No, I was just going to school in the muggle world." Hermione explained.

"Now you're just coming up with ways to stay in school. Seamus, can you believe her?" Dean said towards the Irish man chatting with Harry's friends from the Auror Department.

"She got a degree in St. Mungo's and now she's going back to the muggle world to study." Dean finished.

"Bloody hell Hermione." Seamus said. "I'm surprised that big brain of yours doesn't already know everything."

"You'd be amazed about how much muggles research." Hermione said.

"I heard muggles made great lengths studying genies." Luna said dreamily.

"Hey Luna, it's so good to see you." Hermione said.

Right next to her, Teddy squirmed. Hermione held his hand in order to calm him down but it only made him pout in response.

"It's good to see you too." Luna said. "I was a bit worried that Fudge's Helipaths got to you."

"Luna, there is no such thing as a Heliopath."

"Yes there is. Cornelius Fudge used them to protect him and his family during the war."

Before Hermione could reply, Teddy let go of her hand rather forcefully.

"Teddy-"

"Charlie!" Teddy exclaimed.

He zoomed towards the door where Charlie Weasley was chatting with his mother.

"Hello there little guy." Charlie said. "What's up?"

"Aunty Hermione won't play with me." Teddy whined.

Hermione's face reddened in embarrassment as people around her stared.

Charlie lifted Teddy to his shoulders and walked towards Hermione. A playful grin plastered on his face.

"Was Aunty-Hermione mean to you?" Charlie asked.

Teddy nodded vigorously.

"I barely see Aunty Hermione anymore and she's too busy talking to all her other friends to pay attention to me." Teddy whined. "She could meet her friends other times. But I could only see her some times."

"Aww… poor baby." Charlie said. He wiped away Teddy's small tears. "Do you want to spend time with me instead? I barely see you too."

"But you're barely in England." Teddy pointed out. "You live far away. There are other people who wants to talk to you too."

"Well I want to play with you." Charlie said. "In fact, I brought a bunch of dragon figurines just for you."

Teddy's pouty face turned to bright and smiling.

Charlie carried Teddy to a little corner where Andromeda could watch the two of them play.

"Ohh… you just made a little boy cry." Seamus said.

She rolled her eyes and grabbed one pitcher of butterbeer. On the corner of her eye, she saw a line of people congratulating Harry and Ginny, which made her realize she had not done so. She made her way towards them but she was stopped by a comfortingly deep voice.

"Hermione! It's good to see that you are doing well."

"Hello there King-I mean Minister." Hermione said, greeting the old friend.

"Now, now. We're with friends. You could just call me Kingsley." He said, "Now tell me how you've been."

"I've been doing well." Hermione said. "Just a little busy with schoolwork and all."

"Ah, a little birdie told me that the reason you went back to school in a muggle university was because you thought that our facilities at St. Mungo's are lacking."

Hermione did not have to guess who the little birdie was. Though she preferred it if Harry kept his mouth shut, she confirmed Kingsley's suspicions.

"Well, I would love to hear about it sometime." Kingsley said.

"Really?" Hermione said, gob smacked.

"Yes. I would love to hear what muggles know that we do not. Why don't you schedule a meeting with my assistant? Sometime before you have to go back to school?"

"Yes, of course Min-err… Kingsley." Hermione said.

Hermione took out a planner from her tiny purse and wrote a little note to schedule an appointment with the Minister. She quickly put away her planner and walked toward the happy couple but she stopped when she realized who was greeting them.

Draco Malfoy arrived dressed in sleek wizard robes and his nose slight turned upright. Right beside him was a tall pretty brunette. She had a bored look on her eyes and a stick-thin figure. She reminded Hermione of a supermodel in a catwalk.

Many guests whispered amongst each other when they saw Malfoy and his date passed them by but they paid them no mind.

"Potter." Malfoy greeted. "Congratulations on your engagement."

"Thank you Malfoy." Harry said

"This is my date for tonight. Astoria." Malfoy said.

"From the Greengrass family." Astoria added. "One of the sacred Twenty-Eight."

Astoria was referring to the list of Twenty-Eight families who were "Truly Pureblood" according to the author of the book _Pure-Blood Directory_ Cantankerus Nott. Hermione read the book before and found it deplorable.

The fact that Astoria made sure to point out her heritage told Hermione that she had no accomplishments to call her own. In a room full of politicians, Aurors and war heroes, Hermione suspected that a pureblood princess like her must have felt inadequate by comparison.

At least, Hermione hoped that was the case. The other, more probable reason was that she wanted to show off her heritage, being only the most sheltered and idiotic person in the world who would show off their blood superiority at Harry Potter's engagement party.

Malfoy handed his gift to Harry and escorted his date to a quiet corner, ignoring the side-glances they received.

The only one who was oblivious to this was little Teddy Lupin who immediate ran up to the couple. He was no longer interested to play with Hermione. Instead, he was interested to meet the newcomers.

"Hi, I never met you two before but my name is Teddy." He said, introducing himself.

"Hello there Teddy." Astoria friendly said. "My name is Astoria and this is Draco."

"Hi." Teddy said. "Do you want some sausage rolls? Auntie Hermione just took out a new batch."

Hermione felt her cheeks redden when she felt Malfoy's gaze turned toward her. It was only for a brief second, but felt her body turn red all over.

"Teddy." Andromeda scolded. "Don't disturb random strangers. Why don't you play with Victoire?"

"But Victoire is a baby." Teddy pouted. "She could barely count to ten."

Despite his protest, Andromeda dragged Teddy away from Draco and Astoria. She sat him down with Victoire who was playing with dolls.

Though there were people around her, Hermione's attention were on the couple who just arrived despite her attempts to look away.

Hermione hated to admit it, but Astoria and Malfoy looked good together.

They both looked high-class. Regal even. The picture of upper-class pureblood society.

Hermione forced herself to look away and she spotted Charlie walking toward her.

"Hey Hermione," Charlie said. "Do you want to grab a drink with me?"

He handed her a pitcher of Fire whiskey, and she thanked him gratefully.

"I heard from the grapevine that you practically disappeared almost a year ago." Charlie said.

"Not really." Hermione replied. "I was just studying in a muggle university for a while."

"Busy, busy." Charlie said.

Hermione glanced at Malfoy and Astoria again. For a moment, Hermione wondered if Astoria was one of Malfoy's conquests that he was so proud about the last time they talked. However, she doubted it. He kept a respectable distance from her. He pretty much kept his hands to himself.

Does he have-?

Hermione shook her head. Even though there was a part of her that knew that this would happen, her veela side refused to admit it.

"Do you have a past with him?" Charlie asked.

"Hmm?"

"Do you have a past with the Malfoy kid over there?" Charlie asked again.

"No, why do you think that?"

"You were just looking at him intently." Charlie said. "I was wondering if you had a past with him. Perhaps recent?"

"No. I never had a relationship with him." Hermione repeated. "Not now, not ever."

"But you want to." Charlie said.

Hermione looked at the man in question then back at Charlie. She could not deny that she wanted to march over to Malfoy and claim him as hers. That seemed to be the case every time she saw him, heard about him or even saw his picture on the paper.

But she knew better than to give into her Veela urges. She knew that claiming a former Death Eater turned playboy would be a bad idea for so many reasons.

She did not feel like explaining all of those reasons to Charlie right then. However, she would very much enjoy doing something else with him.

"Maybe I just have an itch." Hermione told Charlie coyly.

Hermione had gone through over two years of avoiding Malfoy, she would not let close proximity cloud her judgment.

Hermione looked around and made sure that nobody was watching.

The party quickly formed little cliques. The only oddball was Harry who was chatting with Malfoy, probably to make sure that he and his date were comfortable.

The pub was full of old friends greeting one another and updating each other about their own lives. They would be too busy talking to each other to notice two people missing.

She leaned into Charlie's ear.

"Maybe you could help me scratch it." Hermione whispered.

Hermione made her way upstairs towards one of the Weasley's rented rooms. It was not ideal to borrow one of the Weasley's rooms for a quick shag but she needed this right now.

She carefully took her clothes and unbuttoned her blouse. She was not even halfway through her shirt before Charlie entered the room.

"Lay down on the bed." Hermione told him.

Charlie obliged. Hermione carefully folded her blouse and placed it on the chair nearby. She walked toward Charlie who was unbuttoning his shirt showing off his well-toned chest.

Hermione straddled his hips. Her fingers unbuttoned his trousers.

Charlie reached up to kiss her, which she returned in kind. Once she finished unbuttoning his trousers, she made quick work to unbutton hers as well.

Hermione usually enjoyed foreplay but she was not in the mood for it tonight. She rode Charlie as soon as her jeans were on the floor. She made sure that he hit that delicious spot that made her moan and whimper over and over again. Underneath her, Charlie hoarsely gave her words of encouragement.

On the corner of her eye, she noticed that the door was slightly ajar. She could tell from the shadows on the floor that there was someone watching them. The only defining characteristic was the familiar silver-blonde hair. _Malfoy._

How long was he watching? Did he follow her upstairs or did he stumble upon them?

Hermione expected that he would go back downstairs but he did not. He was just standing there, watching them.

Knowing that Malfoy was watching made Hermione ride Charlie harder, eager to give her mate a good show. Did he enjoy watching her? Did he felt aroused seeing her like this? Was he pleasuring himself at the sight of her riding another man?

Hermione imagined Malfoy entering the room. His breathing labored as he stroked himself. She imagined him forcefully pulling her away from Charlie and inserting himself into her. He would palm her breast with one hand and stroke her clit with another.

The last thought was enough to put her over the edge. Hermione felt a wave of pure pleasure took over her body and she fell to his sweaty well-toned chest.

Gently, Charlie flipped her over so that he was on top.

"I'm not done with you yet Mione." Charlie said hoarsely.

In one quick swoop, he placed her ankles over his shoulders and entered her again. The angle was new to her and it felt delicious. Each stroke grazed her clit and it was not long until Hermione reached her second orgasm. This time, Charlie reached his peak with her.

Hermione felt tired and deliciously sore but that did not stop her partner from massaging her right breast while suckling on her left one. All Hermione wanted to do was to lay there with a warm body to cuddle with.

The noise downstairs cruelly reminded her that she had social obligations to take care of.

Hermione sat up, which forced Charlie's mouth to detach from her taut nipple.

"Hmm… I was enjoying that." Charlie moaned.

"There is time for that later." Hermione said. "We need to get back to the party, your sister's engagement party I might add."

Charlie groaned in response.

Hermione got up and looked for her clothes. With great care, she dressed herself. She made sure that she looked well put together. She neither had a wrinkle on her clothes nor had she a hair out of place. The last thing she wanted was for her friends downstairs to get suspicious.

No, the very last thing she wanted was to give Rita Skeeter something to write about.

She knew that she should have waited until after the party but she really needed to releases some sexual energy. Maybe her veela hormones had a stronger effect than usual because her mate was nearby, or maybe she was losing self-control. Either way, she had to check on that later.

Once fully dressed, Hermione looked at the still-naked Charlie.

"Are you coming?" Hermione asked.

"Only if you stay with me for the rest of the party." Charlie said cheekily.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Come on, I barely know half of the guests here. And you're more beautiful than the other half."

Hermione was tempted to just leave him there but she knew that the Weasleys would be wondering where he was. She needed to give him a motivation.

"I'll go down first." Hermione said. "You have five minutes to get dressed and come back downstairs. Otherwise forget about talking to me for the rest of the party."

Hermione left Charlie without a second look. It might be cruel, but she needed to show him that she was serious.

Malfoy was not at the hall when she left the room. For a moment, she wondered if she imagined him watching her. After all, it was not the first time she imagined him as she pleasured herself either alone or with Anthony.

The party was at its last leg when she went back downstairs. Hermione could tell that there were guests who already left the party. Some guests looked tired and ready to head home but stayed behind out of politeness. There were also some people who had passed out drunk.

She waited quietly in the only unoccupied booth in the pub. She had a long day today, and she didn't really want to talk to anybody. She should go home, but she did say to Charlie that she would spend time with him until the party ended. Malfoy was sitting rather close to his date across the pub.

There goes Hermione's fantasy that he was watching her. Or that he was even remotely interested on what she was doing.

"You look tired." Charlie commented when he finally arrived downstairs.

"Two rounds of sex do that to some people." Hermione replied.

"See? We should have stayed upstairs."

"And waited until one of your family members bump into us butt naked?" Hermione asked. "You know your family rented that as a storage room for tonight. Any one of them could enter at any time."

"Touché." Charlie said, "So how have you been?"

"I've been good." Hermione replied.

However, that was a bit of a lie. Her eyes could not stop drifting towards Malfoy and his date. He was leaning in close towards her, his hand covered hers as he whispered in her ear.

Hermione felt something growing out of her back. It broke through her skin but the pain was nothing compared to her nose elongating into a beak. She could hear the cartilage on her nose crack. The skin toughened to a hard beak.

"Mione, are you okay?" Charlie asked.

But she couldn't hear him. All she though was the voice on her brain chanting Mione, Mione, mine. MINE.

The last thing Hermione remembered was lounging towards the couple as Malfoy kissed his date.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: If you do not get it by now, I am neither claiming these characters as mine nor am I profiting here. Otherwise, I would be updating more often.

A.N. I keep writing and rewriting scenes on this chapter, it's not even funny.

Also, last chapter was the most reviewed chapter so far so thank you guys.

Special Thanks to RomanceObsessed, kyutiepie, catsgotmytongue, Elased, dutch potterfan, Guest, and Blue Luver5000

Chapter 9

Hermione woke up staring at St. Mungo's off-white walls. She could recognize the plain colored walls with unattractive ridges anywhere. From a distance, she could hear the chatter of nurses as they run down the hall. There was the faint noise of Christmas carols reminded her that it was Christmas. Or did it already pass?

Hermione groaned. She promised her parents that she would meet them for dinner. Their relationship was strained as it was ever since Hermione used a memory charm on them. Skipping out on Christmas would just break their heart.

"Good Morning Miss Granger."

Hermione turned her head to see where the voice came from to find one of her old professors. Hermione took one of Professor Hippocrates Smethwyck's classes as one of her requirements and she liked the class. He was a funny professor, though he always seemed distracted because he had to run St. Mungo's Dai Llewellyn Ward.

"Good morning Professor." Hermione said.

"Good morning to you too Ms. Granger." Professor Smethwyck said with a smirk.

"What happened?" Hermione groaned.

"You transformed into your veela form." Professor Smethwyck explained. "Gave everybody quite a scare might I add. Apparently you attacked a couple during Harry Potter's party last night."

A deep unsettling feeling overwhelmed Hermione. The last thing Hermione remembered was watching Malfoy and his date. Her veela took control of her body-no. She transformed into a veela. She became irrationally violent in front of her friends and the worst part of all was that she had no control over her own body. She could have hurt someone she loved.

"Did I hurt anybody?" she asked. Her voice was filled with dread.

"No, thankfully you did not hurt anybody." Professor Smetswyck said in a comforting tone. "There was a lot of very capable people attending Mr. Potter's party. Intoxicated, yes, but very capable. They managed to stop you before you hurt anybody seriously. But you did damage some of the things at Leaky Cauldron."

Hermione groaned. She did not have room for her budget to replace any broken furniture.

"Don't worry about it. Nothing a few spells can't repair." he said.

Professor Smethwyck smiled in that grandfather manner that made her feel better. Hermione gave him the best smile she could muster.

"Now I know you don't want to spend your Christmas catching up with your old professor." He said. "Why don't we finish the paperwork so you could meet with your visitors upstairs?"

He asked her the standard Healer questions. How was she feeling? Horrible. Was she aching anywhere? Just her whole body. Has she transformed before? No. What triggered the transformation?

Hermione had no reply for the last one. How could she tell her former professor that she-no, her veela-was jealous?

"Is there anything you noticed that might trigger your veela getting angry?" Professor Smetwyck asked again.

Hermione shook her head.

"Miss Granger." Professor Smetwyck. "I may not be an expert in veelas but I know that veelas don't spontaneously transform. Let along your very first transformation."

Professor Smetwyck asked her about what happened in the party. How many people were there? Not many people. Were there any couples nearby? Quite a few. It was an engagement party on Christmas Eve, there were many affectionate people that day.

Professor Smetwyck read her information yet again. He seemed pensive, even contemplative.

"What are you thinking professor?" Hermione asked.

"I might be wrong here Ms. Granger but perhaps we found your mate." Professor Smetwyck said.

Hermione stiffened but she did not let the panicked feeling reach her face.

"I can't be a hundred percent certain about it but it is very possible that your mate is at that party. I highly suggest that you ask for the guest list and go over it."

"I'll make sure to do so Professor." Hermione said. "I'll ask Harry and Ginny for the guest list as soon as I see them."

"One more thing Ms. Granger." Professor Smethwyck said. "As a standard we checked through other problems and I noticed that you have early signs of fatigue.

Hermione groaned. Here we go again. Another lecture on how she was overworking herself. How she needed to scale back on her workload. That she was working herself too hard.

"I know that the Holidays could be a very stressful time for some people." Professor Smethwyck said which surprised Hermione.

Wait, no lecture on how she's overworking herself?

"It's more likely that your transformation pushed you over the top during these very stressful times." Professor Smethwyck hypothesized. "Just in case, we would like to keep you here for a couple of days for observation and to make sure that you rest."

Hermione opened her mouth to complain. She could not stay in bed during the holidays. She had people to see and presents to give. Not to mention all the things she still needed to do! She still needed to read her textbooks, write a proposal and present it to Kingsley.

What good was a couple of days of rest if she ended up worrying about everything she had to do?

"No buts Miss Granger." Professor Smethwyck said. "I am informing the nurses that you are under bed rest."

He left her room and told a nurse along the way to call Hermione's visitors.

As she sat alone in her hospital room, she listed through everything she needed to do. She had to meet up with her parents, read her textbooks for next semester, go over her proposal with the Minister and get a head start on the paper due in five months. She was so ingrosed with the list of things she still needed to do that she didn't realize that the Weasleys already came in.

"What are you thinking Hermione?" Ron asked.

"You know Hermione." George said in a teasing tone. "She's probably worried about that essay she needs to submit in six months."

Hermione blushed in embarrassment.

"It's only five months from now and I barely even cracked the book open." Hermione said which made the Weasleys smirk in amusement.

Ron was the first person to hug her and greet her Merry Christmas. George greeted her next followed by Bill, Fleur, Victoire, Percy and Charlie who showed no signs of awkwardness followed him. Molly greeted her in a manner that lacked her usual warmth but Arthur made up for her.

Ginny came up to her next. She hugged Hermione and whispered to her ear.

"Don't worry about mum." Ginny whispered . "She's just upset that you were hiding a secret from her."

"I'm really sorry about ruining your engagement party." Hermione told her.

"Don't worry about it." Ginny said. "I'm just happy that you are alright and nobody was hurt."

The last person who greeted her was Harry, which registered as odd for Hermione. He practically hid himself behind everybody else. Once Hermione did spot him, he had an apologetic look on his face.

"Hey Hermione." Harry greeted.

Hermione greeted back.

"Well… the cat is out of the bag huh?" Harry said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"I think the cat is running around and hissing at everybody who would try to approach." Hermione said.

"Soo…" Ron said. "What exactly happened last night?"

"I guess it's time to tell you all." Hermione said.

She settled herself in a comfortable seating position. She had hoped that she had more time to tell them.

"I transformed into my veela form." She said.

None of them was surprised about the news. She guessed that they figured out her secret and had time to let the news sink in. Judging from the expectant stairs she received, Hermione could tell that they wanted her to elaborate.

Therefore she explained to them about her heritage. About her Greek veela and French veela ancestry that still confused her.

"Why didn't you tell us about your veela heritage earlier?" Molly asked.

"I just don't want to explain something I'm confused about." Hermione said. "I'm still discovering about my limits."

"Hey Hermione." George said. "How does it feel to transform into a bird?"

"Horrible." Hermione said. "Imagine all of your bones breaking while skele-grow fixes it all at once."

Everyone winced at the thought.

"When are you getting out of the hospital?" Ron asked.

"In a couple of days." Hermione replied. "Healer Smethwyck said that I had signs of fatigue because it was my very first transformation. They are forcing me into bed rest."

"Well." Arthur said, drawing attention of every one of the room. "Looks like we are celebrating Christmas in at St. Mungo's. Do you mind if we open our Christmas gifts in your room Hermione?"

This news surprised Hermione.

"Wait, you guys haven't opened your Christmas gifts yet?" Hermione asked.

"Why of course." Molly said. Her tone hid a jumble of emotions she must feel right now. "We can't enjoy Christmas with you in a hospital bed."

Molly and Arthur took out the presents from a small red pouch that Hermione suspected was charmed with an undetectable extension charm. They distributed the presents including the ones Hermione sent over for them a few weeks ago.

For the most part, everybody received what he or she wanted for Christmas. Everybody got a new sweater from Molly. George gave away brand new products from his shop. Charlie gave away souvenirs from Romania. Percy gave every man a tie and every woman a gift card to Madam Malkin's. Hermione's gift was more practical. She gave everybody books.

As they opened their gifts, Hermione felt at home. The overwhelming sense family and belonging caused Hermione to tear up. The thought of family also reminded her of her parents.

"Oh my gosh." Hermione said which surprised the Weasley clan. "I need to send an owl to my family. They don't know that I'm in the hospital and they're expecting me for lunch."

Hermione scrambled to find a piece of parchment, quill and an ink well. Thankfully, Percy always had office supplies with him for whatever reason.

"Do you want us to leave you alone while you write a note for your parents?" Molly asked.

Hermione gave her a thankful look as Molly ushered her family out the room.

She wrote a three-foot letter apologizing to her parents. She explained that she was at St. Mungo's , the wizard hospital. No, they did not need to worry about her and everything would be all right. She even asked to reschedule for New Year's Eve.

Once she finished her letter, Hermione called one of the nurses to send an owl for her. She knew that the hospital has a bunch of owls for emergency purposes. Hermione also knew that the staff members define the word "emergency" very loosely when it comes to those owls. All Hermione needed to tell the nurse was that the note was for her parents for them to send her letter.

The favor did not come without a price though. The nurse informed her that she needed to be in bed soon because of her mandatory bed rest. Despite her complaints, the nurse allowed Hermione five minutes to thank and say goodbye to the Weasley family.

* * *

The gentle caress on her cheek woke up Hermione. Her eyes fluttered open to see Anthony standing over her.

"Hey there Sleeping Beauty." Anthony said. "How are you feeling?"

"Like someone broke all my bones and healed them all at once." Hermione said.

She looked over Anthony's clothes. He was wearing his lime green Healer robes. His face showed the telltale signs of a new Healer, tired and stressed. His shoulders were slumped. He looked twice as horrible as the last time she saw him.

"They put you on duty? During Christmas evening?" She asked.

Anthony nodded.

"Yeah, people tend to be rowdy during the holidays and the ones with seniority wanted to spend time with their families. All the newbies have to help out." Anthony yawned. "I just finished a double shift so I'm heading home straight home after visiting you."

Anthony sat down on the chair right next to her bed. His eyes were heavy and Hermione could tell that he could pass out in any minute.

"This is the first time when all of the department heads were unavailable. It was kind of a mess." Anthony said.

"Kind of a mess?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. Everybody just seemed lost. A big lot of the newbies don't know what to do without their supervisors."

He says "newbie" as if he was not one.

"Wait, Professor Smetwyck was just right here." Hermione said. "He's not with his family?"

Anthony scoffed.

"That poof. He came at nine o'clock in the morning as he found out that the 'famous Golden Trio' was in the hospital. He left as soon as he finished taking care of you and your guests. The man wouldn't even go near this place if you were not hospitalized."

Hermione knew that Anthony must feel frustrated about his role as a new Healer, one of the least respected Healers in the entire Hospital.

"Don't worry so much about it." Hermione said. "One day, he'll retire and you'll take over his office."

This made Anthony smile. Signs of tiredness disappeared if only for a moment.

"Not unless you start your own department." Anthony said. "I'll join your Magical Genetics Department as soon as you open it. Then I'll spend the rest of my life working as your very handsome assistant."

"That would not happen for a very long time." Hermione laughed. "Maybe I'll hire a younger, more handsome assistant instead."

"Cougar." Anthony teased.

He leaned over and pecked her lips.

"Fine. I'll be your co-founder instead." Anthony said. "You'll do all the work and I'm going to be the public face."

"Already giving yourself a promotion I see." Hermione said. "Fine then, your first job is to come with me to meet with the Minister. We're going to need his endorsement to attract investors for the research."

Anthony's teasing face turned to panicked one.

"You got a meeting with the Minister? How? You haven't even drawn up a proposal for the research yet." Anthony said in a panicked tone. "You haven't even finished your program in that muggle university. Do you even know what to do?"

Hermione chuckled at his panicked expression. He was no longer tired, instead he was panicking about the thought of meeting with the minister.

"Relax." Hermione said. "I already drew up some drafts of the proposal so we do not have to worry about going in empty-handed. We really do not have to explain a lot of the technical stuff anyway. We just need to tickle his interest."

"Are you okay?" Anthony asked.

"I'm okay." Hermione answered. "Why?"

"You just seemed tired." Anthony said. "I'm tired because I have work. You shouldn't be tired since you are on holiday."

He walked toward the foot of her bed and grabbed the clipboard attached to it.

"Professor Smethwyck wrote down that you have signs of fatigue." Anthony said. "Do you know how tired you must be for the physical signs of fatigue to show up?"

Hermione blushed in embarrassment.

"I've been taking a lot of classes last semester." Hermione said. "On top of that it was the Holiday season so I had to go gift shopping for everybody."

"If you're tired all the time, maybe we should meet up more often." Anthony said. "I could be your little study buddy and we could provide each other with some stress relief."

Anthony leaned over to give her a kiss but paused when he saw her frown.

"There's something I need to confess." Hermione said. "I slept with someone."

Anthony was not surprised about the news. Instead, he looked on alert. His body was stiff and his jaw was clenched.

"Was he your mate?" Anthony asked. "Or were you just relieving an itch."

Was he your mate? That was the question he asked whenever Hermione meets someone new. He was not being possessive by any means. He always introduced himself and he was always polite. It might be her imagination, but Anthony seemed to hold his breathe every time he asked the question.

Hermione cannot help but think that he was just bidding his time until she finds her mate.

"No." Hermione said. "He was not my mate. I just really need to relieve an itch yesterday."

Anthony relaxed and gave her a cheeky smirk.

"I kind of figured that you would take a second lover." Anthony confessed. "You may have noticed that your libido has been steadily increasing."

"What?!" Hermione exclaimed.

Anthony grabbed her clipboard yet again and pretended to flip through it.

"Yeah. You've been visiting me more often as time goes by. The only time it's slowed down was when you took that muggle class microbiology."

"Please don't tell me that you created a flow chart of every time I get horny."

Anthony hid his clipboard behind his back.

"You didn't." Hermione said accusingly.

Anthony backed away.

"Anthony!"

Hermione jumped up from her bed and tried to grab the clipboard from his hand. Anthony tried his best to keep the clipboard away from her. He raised his arm so that Hermione would have to stand on her toes to reach it.

"Am I interrupting something?" Draco Malfoy asked from the door.

Hermione and Anthony both jumped away from one another.

Hermione's heart beat faster when she saw him. He looked handsome in his impeccable black robes that contrast his pale complexion. Hermione felt haggard by comparison. Her lips were chapped, her hair was definitely a mess and she was wearing an unflattering hospital gown.

In embarrassment, Hermione retreated to her bed and tried to hide herself under the covers as much as possible.

"No, you weren't interrupting anything." Anthony replied to Malfoy. "I was about to leave."

"No Anthony." Hermione reached for his hand. "I want you to stay."

Anthony obliged and let Hermione held his hand. Anthony laced his fingers with hers. Hermione felt herself drawing comfort form Anthony's hands as she watched Malfoy walk toward the middle of the room.

"Is there something that I could help you with?" Hermione asked.

Malfoy's face was neutral, impassive even, as he spoke.

"I just want to see how you were." Malfoy said. "I heard that you would be hospitalized for a couple of days so I want to make sure that you're alright."

Hermione was no fool. She found it hard to believe that Malfoy would visit her in the hospital when they were never in amicable terms.

"I'm doing fine. Thank you for asking." Hermione said.

There was a pregnant pause where nobody knew what to say next.

"I was wondering." Malfoy starts. "If you would like to join me for lunch one of these days. We spent seven years at Hogwarts and even fought a war together. I just realized that we barely know each other."

Her veela wanted nothing more than to have lunch with him but her brain told her to be cautious.

"I don't think I would have time for that." Hermione said carefully.

She turned towards Anthony. With her eyes, she pleaded him to play along.

"We still need to write up a proposal to present the Minister." Hermione said.

"Yes." Anthony said reluctantly. "We still need to write up a formal proposal, plan out what we're going to say…"

"Oh, and I still need to read my textbooks." Hermione added.

"Read your textbooks?" Anthony said. "Hermione, there's still three more weeks until school starts."

"Exactly! Do you know how dry university-level science textbooks are? It takes me a day to read six hundred pages!"

Anthony laughed good naturedly.

"Only you would think reading six hundred pages in a day as slow."

Malfoy looked between the two of them. His face was still impassive.

"Hermione, you said that you have a proposal for the Minister." Malfoy said in a clear tone.

"Yes." Hermione said with the same careful tone she used on him before. "It's for a research project I wanted to start. I hope that I could get the Minister's endorsement so I could attract sponsors."

"Can I take a look at this proposal of yours?" Malfoy said. "I might want to sponsor in it."

"No. I don't think that you would like to do that." Hermione said. "It's a research project that is very likely to take a lot of money and a lot of time."

Anthony squeezed her hand. She could tell he wanted her to go easy on a potential sponsor but she did not care. She did not want to end up reporting to him.

"There were also a lot of technical things we need to iron out. Many of the equipment we would need are muggle. I'm not sure if you would want to support a research project that use muggle technology."

"And why would I not support a research that would use muggle technology?" Malfoy asked.

His voice was aloof and it irritated Hermione.

"Because… because of your history." Hermione said carefully.

"Hey don't be mean to the guy." Anthony chastised.

Hermione blushed in embarrassment. She should not have hinted at the war but Malfoy was the one who brought it up earlier. Besides, its better that she told him-and all of her potential sponsors-right away that she intends to use muggle technology.

"How about I offer you a proposal instead." Malfoy said. "Before you finish drafting your proposal, I would go over it and discuss how much money you would need to purchase muggle equipment. I could even look for a facility that could run…whatever it is that make muggle technology run. That way, your proposal would be more attractive to sponsors and investors."

Both Hermione and Anthony were gob smacked.

"Wow. That's very generous of you Malfoy." Anthony said.

"Too generous in fact." Hermione said. She looked straight at Malfoy's gray eyes. "I can't in good conscience take a large amount of money from someone who doesn't even know what they are paying for."

Malfoy shrugged as if what he offered them was no big deal.

"It's the least that I could do since I'm practically the one who sent you to the hospital." Malfoy said.

There was a pregnant pause between the three of them. Hermione could tell that Anthony was eyeing the two of them suspiciously but she did not care. What did Malfoy want from her? He clearly was not here to see if she was okay. And she must be stupid to believe that anyone-let along Malfoy-would readily agree to finance her dream without even looking at a proposal.

Whatever it Malfoy wanted, Hermione knew that Malfoy would not tell her while there was an audience.

"Anthony, can you please leave the room? I would like to talk to Malfoy in private." Hermione said primly.

Reluctantly, Anthony did as Hermione requested.

"Now that your little boy-toy is gone." Malfoy drawled as soon as the door closed. "We could get to business.

"Okay then." Hermione said.

She points at the chair right next to her. Malfoy came forward and sat on the indicated seat.

"What do you want from me?" Hermione asked.

"I just want to know one thing." Draco said. "When are you planning to tell me that I'm your mate?"


End file.
